The holding company of Hutchison 3G Italia, controlled by Hutchison Whampoa, has been ordered by an arbitration court to pay ?423.3 million ($4.4 billion) to a unit of Italian company Cirtel International (CIR) following a dispute over financing for the European mobile phone operator.
Of the amount, ?373.3 million was related to financing provided by CIR to help H3G Italia pay for a third-generation mobile-phone licence in 2000 while the rest was interest.
Saturday's ruling came after Hutchison had won the first round of the arbitration in 2002, when a court rejected a bid by CIR to recover the ?380 million it had invested in the mobile-phone operator. The judge rejected CIR's application for an interim order freezing assets in H3G Italia.
H3G Italia, now 88.2 per cent owned by Hutchison Whampoa, was formed when a Hutchison-led consortium won the 3G licence in 2000. CIR was a founding member of the consortium.
The dispute relates to a row between H3G Italia and CIR over whether the latter's financing for the licence should be automatically converted into capital in H3G Italia - something CIR refused to accept.
The arbitration began in July 2001 when CIR, then a 15 per cent stakeholder of H3G Italia, asked to cash out and sold a 2.1 per cent stake back to Hutchison.