J&F stated, in a statement, that it is not aware of the lawsuit filed by Paper Excellence at the International Chamber of Commerce (CCI), in Paris, against the Batista brothers’ holding company. “If the information is true, Paper Excellence deceived the Federal Supreme Court by stating that it was willing to negotiate an agreement before the Supreme Court itself, while buying time to escape Brazilian jurisdiction,” the company said in a statement.
“J&F is not aware of this new attempt to pressure them to give up their rights and trusts in the fulfillment of the contract and respect for Brazilian law and the decisions of the Judiciary” adds J&F.
As shown earlier, the Broadcast (Grupo Estado’s real-time news system), Paper Excellence said it had opened a new arbitration in the dispute for control of Brazilian company Eldorado Celulose. According to a note sent by Paper, the company seeks compensation of US$3 billion for the “unfair and abusive acts carried out by the two Brazilian companies to prevent the transfer of control of Eldorado from taking place”.
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In the note, Paper stated that the choice of Paris as the venue for the new arbitration is an attempt to “reduce the space for delaying maneuvers” by the brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista, owners of J&F. According to Paper, the two “have been taking advantage of procedural loopholes in the legislation and abusing the Brazilian judicial system by creating a hostile scenario with several factoids and parallel actions to not hand over the company they sold for R$15 billion”.
The fight has lasted more than six years and involves around R$15 billion. In 2017, Paper purchased 49.41% of Eldorado. The contract provided for the transfer of 100% of the company controlled by J&F to Paper. The remaining 50.59% of the shares remain with the Batista holding after the agreement was judicialized on several fronts.
Paper accuses J&F of not complying with the purchase and sale contract. J&F argues that Paper did not release the guarantees provided for in the agreement. Now, one of the main arguments of the Batista brothers’ holding company against the sale is a law that restricts the purchase of Brazilian land by foreigners. According to J&F, the total areas under Eldorado’s control is around 450 thousand hectares.
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In 2021, Paper won a victory in the ICC Brasil arbitration court, which ruled 3-0 that J&F complied with the terms of the negotiation made in 2017 and sold 100% of Eldorado to the foreign group. The arbitration court was composed of three arbitrators, one appointed by each side and the third by the court itself.
The arbitration decision was questioned by J&F in the São Paulo Court and the trial was suspended by decision of Minister Mauro Campbell, of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), who responded to J&F’s request.
