Court rejects Piaggio plea

Singhanias, who holds 23.6 per cent stake in the second largest scooter maker, had moved the Kanpur court to acquire Piaggio’s equivalent share in the company after the death of its owner Giovanni Agnelli in December last year.

The Indian promoters cited a clause in the joint venture agreement to claim their right to acquire shares of Piaggio.

Piaggio, however, stoutly opposed Singhanias move saying that their interpretation of the clause was wrong.

"Piaggio will oppose such interpretation of thejoint venture agreement in all the necessary form in order to safeguard its position, as India continues to represent a strategically important position in the ambit of Piaggio’s international presence," the company’s Indian representative Mario Emprin had said.

LML had moved court saying it was only exercising rights conferred on it by the joint venture agreement which empowered it to buy out the Italian partner’s stake.

Contending that the case be transferred to ICC Singapore for arbitration, Piaggio had alleged that Singhanias were unnecessarily dragging Piaggio BV, a subsidiary of Italian company, with the sole intention of stalling any move to take the case to the ICC.

They conditionally agreed to make Netherlands-based subsidiary a party to the dispute as sought by the Singhanias only if they agreed to go to the ICC Singapore.

Matters came to a head with LML dragging Italian partner to ICC Paris, demanding Rs 300 crore damages for making "vague and baseless allegations" against it in anarbitration plea filed by Piaggio at ICC Singapore.

LML sought intervention of ICC, Paris, to know the basis of the allegations levelled against it by Piaggio & CSPA, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Italian firm, as it had not given any details of the “breach of various agreements” in its arbitration plea at Singapore.

The Kanpur civil court had earlier restrained Piaggio and Singhanias from transferring the disputed shares of the company held by the Italian two-wheeler giant.