Ping An Life Insurance Company of China, Limited and Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Limited v. Kingdom of Belgium (Ping An v. Belgium)

Case Summaries

ICSID Case No. ARB/12/29

Award

Date of Award  30 April 2015

Introduction

The award in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) case Ping An v. Belgium was dispatched to the parties on 30 April 2015.¹The case is of significance for a variety of reasons. To start with, it is the first time that Chinese investors instituted arbitration proceedings under the ICSID rules. Furthermore, it is the first time that Belgium is cited as the respondent in an international investment case.

Facts and Claims

The case concerns a dispute between two companies incorporated under the laws of China (Ping An Life Insurance Company and Ping An Life Insurance Group Company - 'the investors' or 'the Claimants') and Belgium. The investors, after acquiring in 2007-2008 a significant amount of shares in Fortis (or 'FBB'), a major Dutch/Belgian financial institution, became Fortis' lead shareholder. ²

In September 2008, Fortis was hit by the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Fortis' solvency was in peril thus leading other banks to refrain from lending to FBB. FBB was forced to resort to the marginal lending facility offered by BNB at punitive interest rates. ³These circumstances led the Benelux governments to intervene by taking a series of measures designed to rescue the bank.⁴The measures, however, did not manage to stabilize FBB. A second wave of actions was agreed by the Benelux governments, which resulted in a take-over of FBB by Belgium. Belgium, subsequently, and with the approval of Fortis' shareholders, sold 75% of FBB to BNP Paribas in May 2009. ⁵

The investors alleged that Belgium's actions in attempting to rescue Fortis were unreasonable and harmful. In particular, they submitted that, by adopting such measures, Belgium (i) breached...