On Friday, 8 June 2018, Mr Justice Picken handed down judgment in Aras v National Bank of Greece [2018] EWHC 1389 (Comm), requiring substantial fee payments to be made to the Chairman, Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Finansbank, the leading Turkish bank.
The fee payments fell due upon the sale of Finansbank by NBG to Qatar National Bank in December 2015, a €2.75 billion transaction which took place to meet commitments made by NBG and the Greek Government as part of the European Union bailout of the systemic Greek banks.
The proceedings were tried within the Shorter Trials Scheme, which allows appropriate commercial witness cases to be listed, tried and determined expeditiously, and in this case in just under one year from start to finish.
Ben Valentin QC appeared for the Claimants, Dr Mehmet Aras, Mr Sinan Sahinbas and Mr Temel Guzeloglu, instructed by Nicholas Greenacre, Swati Tripathi, Tessa Crosby and Hana Mori of White & Case LLP.
A link to the judgment appears here here.
