Kuwait Forms Panel to Probe Dow Deal Ruling, Cabinet Says

Kuwait formed a ministerial committee to handle an international court ruling that ordered the Gulf state to pay $2.16 billion in damages to Dow Chemical Co. (DOW), according to a Cabinet statement.

The committee, headed by the finance minister, will also seek to “minimize losses and damages” as a result of the ruling, according to the statement, released after the Council of Ministers’ weekly meeting yesterday.

The award by the London-based International Court of Arbitration doesn’t include costs or interest and is final and binding, Midland, Michigan-based Dow said on May 24.

Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries Co., under pressure from lawmakers, canceled a contract to form a 50-50 venture with Dow’s plastics unit in December 2008. The failure of the so- called K-Dow venture deprived Dow of a $9 billion payment during the global financial crisis, almost derailed its 2009 purchase of Rohm & Haas Co. and forced the company’s first dividend cut.

Kuwait’s government, which has held a series of high-level meetings since the ruling was announced, also formed a separate panel to probe all procedures followed in the deal and those leading to its cancelation, according to the statement.