SINGAPORE: Two of Southeast Asia's wealthiest men are facing off in a Singapore court on Tuesday as T. Ananda Krishnan from Malaysia and James Riady battle over what Krishnan's companies are seeking an order to enforce a $300 million arbitration ruling they received. According to reports, three of Riady's companies have reported that their submissions for the hearing said that they didn't consent to the arbitration proceedings that awarded Krishnan part of the funds he had put into a failed pay-television venture in Indonesia. A source close to the Riady empire told Bikyamasr.com that the court battle is part of the overall “reality that they have to protect their companies at all cost and cannot allow the now Malaysian competitor to take advantage.” The same source added that “Riady is confident the court will side with them.” Krishnan, worth about $7.8 billion according to data compiled and calculated by Bloomberg and Malaysia's second richest person, and Riady, whose Lippo Group has media, financial services and property businesses in Asia, established the TV venture in 2005. The two companies went on to do deals in real estate and telecommunications. But tension has been running high and the hearing at the Singapore High Court beginning Tuesday and scheduled to end July 25 follows lawsuits in Indonesia, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Krishnan's Astro All Asia Networks Plc, which said in 2008 that it ended the venture after its Lippo partners failed to pay 805 million ringgit ($254 million) in bills, declined to comment on the dispute or reasons behind the breakdown in ties between the two companies. Lippo has argued that Astro ended satellite services to the pay-TV venture in October 2008 leaving “tens of thousands of Indonesian consumers stranded." Riady's assistant Lina Megawati didn't return two telephone calls or respond to an email seeking comment. Lippo's PT Ayunda Prima Mitra sued several companies and individuals linked to Astro in Indonesia in September 2008. Lippo claimed the lawsuit was in response to “threats by Astro to stop providing services" to the pay-TV operations, according to a regulatory filing in 2008. A month later, Astro started confidential arbitration proceedings in Singapore, a city-state which sits between Indonesia and Malaysia. A three-member arbitration tribunal in 2010 ruled that Astro should get about $300 million from Lippo. To enforce the awards, Astro sought orders from courts including in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. The arbitration was meant as a “trojan horse" for Astro to shoehorn three of its units into the dispute and resist the Indonesian lawsuits, Lippo's lawyers said in their submissions to the Singapore court. “Consent is the most fundamental precondition to any arbitration," the lawyers said. There was never any agreement to arbitrate with three of the Astro units, they said.
