Nobu Su trial opens
Nobu Su showed up in UK High Court today
Monaco-based Greek owner Polys L. Haji-Ioannou attended the first day of a trial in the UK High Court that he and a number of his related companies are bringing against Nobu Su and a raft of the Taiwanese owner’s TMT group entities.
Su, who has previously ducked a number of hearings in relation to the case, made a surprise entrance to the courtroom shortly after proceedings had kicked off in front of judge Jeremy Cooke.
The case centres on a contract entered into between Su and Haji-Ioannou on 8 July 2008 under which the Greek owner agreed to buy the FFAs for a period of one month after which they were to be bought back by TMT at a slightly higher price.
TMT failed to buyback the FFAs by the agreed date of 8 August 2008 and the market then plummeted leaving Haji-Ioannou exposed to a loss of close to $80m on the FFAs.
Su, who has been outspoken in blaming financiers RBS for contributing to TMT’s losses on the FFA and TMT’s resulting bankruptcy, has made some payments against this liability but Haji-Ioannou’s claim still stands at just over $36m.
Barrister Stephen Phillips, of 7KBW, opened the case by reading out a series of colourful e-mails between Su and Vassilis Karakoulakis of Clarkson Securities, who was trying to broker a deal between the two shipowners.
Phillips argued that the deal was a personal one between the two owners, concluded in a rush because of Su’s need for cash. At one point he invited Justice Cooke to conclude that “Su cannot be trusted.”
But Su’s barrister John Jarvis of 3VB, who was preparing to cross-examine Haji-Ioannou, opened his defence by arguing that the deal between the two owners was made between their company interests and was not a personal one.
The trial is scheduled to run for six days.
