China Sugar
In this case, we were instructed by a Chinese company about a substantial claim against them arising under an options contract for sugar.
Our London office received the instructions when arbitration proceedings were commenced in London. They then worked through the voluminous evidence with our Singapore office to establish how these particular options contracts were intended to operate (considering in particular their legitimate commercial purpose) and identify evidence in support of our clients’ defence, which was that it had been agreed that the option would never be called in.
Mark Sachs’s fluency in Mandarin and the team’s ability to understand the options market gave rise to a robust attack on the claimants’ evidence.
We also argued successfully that the contract amounted to an investment contract and was thus unenforceable under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, a decision which was upheld by the Court of Appeal.
This represented a new development in options trading and caused a great deal of consternation in the market.