(Bloomberg) – Dajia Insurance was sentenced to pay more than $ 60 million in fees and interest for the failed lawsuit against Mirae, which refused to purchase 15 US luxury hotels for US 5.8 billion – Complete dollars after the pandemic eroded the value of assets.
Delaware Chancery Court Judge Travis Laster on Friday upheld his November finding that executives at Mirae, a South Korean wealth manager, duly closed the deal with Dajia. Vaster concluded that the China-based insurer’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak resulted in a failure to meet the terms of the contract to complete the hotel sale.
As part of the ruling, Laster found that Dajia would pay $ 33.5 million to cover Mirae’s legal fees, $ 3.6 million for the cost of entering into the contract, and $ 23.4 million for prejudice interest according to the six-page ruling have to pay. To appeal, Dajia is required to deposit a $ 86.4 million bond. The judge also forced the Chinese company to repay $ 581 million in bail.
The buyout was among nearly a dozen legal disputes over key transactions that fell apart due to the global pandemic, and governments issued lockdown orders that forced all kinds of deals to temporarily close. While such cases have been filed in multiple states, at one point half a dozen were before judges in Delaware.
Mirae officials noted that Vaster agreed that Dajia would not have to pay until a decision on an expected appeal is made. “Mirae stands ready to respond to any appeals from sellers and expects the court’s verdict to be upheld,” the company employees said in a statement sent via email.
Raymond DiCamillo, a Wilmington, Delaware-based attorney representing Dajia, did not immediately return a call Friday to comment on Laster’s order.
In addition to the dispute over how Covid impacted wealth, the Dajia-Mirae case came to light after reports surfaced that a group – led by a shadowy figure named Andy Bang – attempted to establish a legal claim to several in the deal Californian hotels to rise.
Dajia’s attorneys managed to prevent the title of the hotels from being transferred to several Delaware-based Shell companies, with ties to the former chief executive officer of Dajia’s predecessor, now jailed for fraud and embezzlement in China. However, Vaster concluded that Dajia was struggling to get property insurance for the properties as part of the sale due to the property transfer hatch.
The case is AB Stable VIII LLC v MAPS Hotel and Resorts One LLC, 2020-0310, Delaware Chancery Court (Wilmington).
Contact the editor, Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com).
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