By: Creamer media

The company in January signed a CPA with a specialist litigation funding firm to provide it with litigation finance capital and working capital, to be used primarily to progress its dispute with the Moroccan government under the agreement between the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the government of the Kingdom of Morocco for the promotion and protection of investments, which entered into force on February 14, 2002, being a bilateral investment treaty.

Alongside the drawdown of the first tranche of funding from the CPA, the company and its subsidiaries in the UK and Morocco have granted certain securities and charges over their assets to the funding counterparty in relation to amounts drawn down.

The granting of such security is considered ordinary course for litigation funding arrangements and shall not be enforced so long as the company continues to meet its obligations under the CPA as intended, Emmerson points out.

The initial drawdown will cover all legal costs to date and ensure that the company’s legal team can complete the next steps in the dispute process, for which preparation is well under way, it adds.

London-listed Emmerson in November hired Boies Schiller Flexner as its litigation counsel in an investment dispute with the Moroccan government, which arose out of alleged breaches by the Moroccan government and its agents of the Promotion and Protection of Investments agreement between the governments of the UK, Northern Ireland and Morocco.