New Doha International Airport Faces AED 900 M Arbitration Claim

Lindner Depa Interiors (‘LDI’) today announced that it has filed a circa AED 900 million (US$ 250 million) international arbitration claim against the New Doha International Airport (‘NDIA’).

Linder Depa is a joint venture company between Depa Limited, one of the world’s leading interior contracting companies, and Germany’s Lindner AG one of the world’s most experienced international airport interior contractors. The arbitration proceeding has been commenced in the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, Paris, France.

Mohannad Sweid, Group CEO, Depa Ltd, commented:
“Our filing today should come as no surprise. We consider the termination of our contract to have been wholly unfounded and the subsequent lack of response by the New Doha International Airport has left Lindner Depa Interiors with no choice but to seek AED 900 million in compensation through international arbitration. We have spent significant time and effort over the last nine months to resolve this matter amicably with the NDIA but without success. We must protect the interests of our shareholders by seeking justice and are confident that the Tribunal will eventually find in our favour.”

The arbitration proceeding directly results from the termination of LDI’s contract with NDIA for the complete fit-out of 17 lounges at Doha’s New Hamad Airport. The contract was cancelled following the announcement on 20 June 2012 that LDI’s performance bond and advance payment guarantee were pulled due to their refusal to accept new, non-favourable contract terms and conditions. These included dropping all extension-of-time claims and related costs incurred as a result of very lengthy delays to our works caused by others and acceleration costs. As a result of these delays, LDI had not been able to start all of its interior contracting work on site as planned and consequently, would not have been able to meet its original contract completion date.

The termination of the contract and the subsequent public comments made against LDI by Mr. Akbar Al Baker, head of the NDIA steering committee and CEO of Qatar Airlines in December 2012 and April 2013 caused significant financial and reputational damage to our company.

LDI is not alone amongst international contractors that have either had contracts terminated by NDIA or who have brought claims against NDIA. Hamad International Airport has still not been officially opened.

LDI has completed many infrastructure projects including work at Terminal 3, Dubai International Airport and a large number of stations on both lines of the Dubai Metro. Lindner was founded in 1965 and has completed many high profile airport projects such as London Heathrow (Terminal 5); Hong Kong Airport; Singapore Changi Airport (Terminal 1); Shanghai Pudong Airport and Barcelona Airport (new Terminal 1).  Depa has successfully executed large and complex projects in over 20 countries including Emirates Airline First and Business Class lounges at Dubai Airport, Mumbai’s new international airport, Museum of Islamic Arts (Qatar), the Emirates Palace Hotel (Abu Dhabi), Grand Hyatt (Malaysia), Baku Flame (Azerbaijan) and Marina Bay Sands (Singapore).

Source: Press Release