Telenor to move for international arbitration, to claim $14 billion in damages

Norway's Telenor has served a notice on the government threatening international arbitration and claiming damages of nearly $14 billion (about Rs 70,000 crore), even as it opposed joint venture partner Unitech's petition before Company Law Board (CLB).

Telenor, in its notice issued on Monday, said it has invoked the provisions under India's Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with Singapore to slap a notice seeking a solution from the government within six months.

The company is to drag the matter to an international arbitration for failure to protect its investment.

"The cancellation of licences, and the resultant loss of investments made by Telenor Asia Pte Ltd constitute a breach of India's obligation under the CCEA. It is also possible that there could be a further breach of CCEA from the manner in which these licences are now redistributed through auctions," Telenor said in the notice.

The notice was sent to the Prime Minister's Office, the Department of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

In its notice, the telecom firm said that it invested in India based on licences issued by the government "in accordance with their own policy and process" and cited approvals from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) to argue that it had complied with the laid down procedure.