After over three years of dispute, Samsung Heavy Industries (SHIN) Nigeria Limited and LADOL Integrated Logistics Free Zone Enterprise (LADOL) have executed a settlement that resolves the historic and outstanding issues currently before the Nigerian and international courts to bring the two sides back together in a lasting partnership. 
   
The joint venture between SHIN and LADOL was established when SHIN was awarded the $3.3billion Egina Floating Production and Offloading (FPSO) project, which required the construction of the fabrication and integration yard to carry out the in-country aspect of the Egina project. 

   
However, the friction between the two parties began in 2018, which continued to escalate, leading to a total breakdown of communications and engagements between the two parties resulting from the court proceedings in 2018. 
 
Over the years, several government agencies have intervened and assisted the two parties greatly in achieving this settlement.
   
SHIN and LADOL, in a statement, said they have reached an accord and thanked the Nigerian and South Korean governments for their assistance and interventions.
   
According to them, this landmark agreement, which demonstrates SHIN’s ongoing commitment to its subsidiary, SHI-MCI and Nigeria, and LADOL’s commitment to consolidating and continuing the development of LADOL Free Zone to help ensure that Nigeria becomes an African hub for industrialisation, ensures that SHIN and LADOL can work together as shareholders in SHI-MCI. 

“SHIN and LADOL have welcomed the settlement agreement, which will be registered as an official Judgment in the High Court in London.

“It will also be registered in the respective courts in Nigeria. In addition, the settlement agreement has been approved by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Exports Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA),” the statement reads. 

   
The settlement agreement, according to them, confirms that the Shareholders Agreement between SHIN, SHI-MCI, and MCI FZE Yard Development Limited (MCI), dated July 1, 2014, remains valid, and the current shareholding of SHI-MCI is held in the following proportions: SHIN 70% and MCI 30%. 
   
The settlement agreement also provides for a new sublease agreement, which has been executed between SHI-MCI and Global Resources Management Limited (GRML), with the NPA as the head-lessor to GRML.
   
Chairman of LADOL, Ladi Jadesimi, said: “The disagreement between LADOL and Samsung been laid to rest in the interest of the Nigerian economy.”
 
He said: “Now it has been completely resolved. The key thing is that we have been able to come back together peacefully cementing a far stronger joint venture going forward.
   
“LADOL will continue to invest in and support a range of developments and industries in LADOL Free Zone from agriculture to green energy, ensuring Nigeria becomes a sustainable industrial Hub in Africa. “ 
   
Managing Director of SHIN, Jejin Jeon, said: “After many years of legal proceedings that have severely hindered SHIN’s ability to operate in Nigeria and threatened its contribution to Nigerian employment and the economy, this settlement is a definitive statement in favour of SHI-MCI’s right to operate in the LADOL Free Zone.
 
“In recognizing that Samsung Heavy Industries (Nigeria) lawfully holds 70% of the shares in SHI-MCI, the settlement acknowledges our extraordinary contribution to the LADOL Free Zone and its role in the economic development of Nigeria,” he stated.