Our client was subject to a litigation case from a Dutch investment company related to its investments in a large residential and commercial construction project in the suburbs of Istanbul. The Dutch investors arranged to bid on and signed a contract for revenue-sharing in exchange for the sale of parcels to develop the project site. After a late start due to a zoning dispute, the contract experienced serious financing issues, which resulted in major construction delays. As the Turkish institution was not satisfied with progress (only c. 10% at the termination date) and the Dutch company’s commitment, the contract was terminated. The Dutch company decided to claim in international court that the Turkish institution had violated its international legal obligations. The Turkish institution then sought legal counsel, and Accuracy was hired to provide expert delay and quantum advice to counter the Dutch company’s expert.
Our report was highly technical, and it was important to ensure that it was clear without oversimplifying the content. Our added value was our experience in the real estate sector and in valuation. We were able to show that, although the initial claim seemed plausible, thorough and detailed at first glance, it was characterised by a lack of supporting evidence and inappropriate application of valuation methodologies. Part of what helped our client was our close cooperation with their lawyers from day one, as well as regular close communication between our teams internally to decide upon the choice of approach and assumptions. The other party, by contrast, had one expert supervise from afar and sign off on their team’s work. This was reflected in the hearing when the tribunal spent the better part of the session on quantum tackling them on each and every point of their report, only pausing once to ask us a simple question.