Recently, 603658.SH released an announcement. Its application for arbitration to the International Court of Arbitration (ICCInternationalCourtofArbitration) of the International Chamber of Commerce has been submitted and accepted as a result of an investment made a few years ago.
In 2018, Antu Biology subscribed for 3.864 million Class R shares of Mobidiag Oy (hereinafter referred to as "Mobidiag") for nearly 10 million euros, becoming a shareholder of Mobidiag. At the same time, the two sides agreed to jointly fund the establishment of a joint venture company in China and carry out business cooperation.
In 2019, the joint venture company Zhengzhou Antu Moby Molecular Diagnostic Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Antu Mobi") was established. In 2019 and 2021, Mobidiag signed license, Development and Distribution Agreement (LDDA) and production Agreement (CMA) with Antu Experimental Instruments (Zhengzhou) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Antu Instruments"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Antu Biology.
According to the Antu Biological Bulletin, in November 2021, Mobidiag sent a notice of unilateral termination of the above agreement by email. After the communication was fruitless, Antu Biology, Antu Moby and Antu Instruments, taking Mobidiag as the respondent, initiated arbitration with the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce and proposedMaisonbaccaratMore than ten arbitration requests have been made.
With regard to the situation related to the arbitration, a reporter from China Business Daily sent a letter to Antu Biology, but there was no reply as of the press release.
Mobidiag is a high-tech company headquartered in Finland, mainly engaged in the design, development, production and sales of molecular diagnostic products. It has Amplidiag and Novodiag two mature technology platforms. It has subordinate enterprises in Paris, France, Berkshire, Stockholm, Sweden, Helsinki, Finland and other places.
From the equity acquisition announcement at that time, it can be seen that Antu Biology is particularly optimistic about the domestic POCT (instant inspection) market. The announcement shows that the Novodiag owned by Mobidiag belongs to the cutting-edge technology in the field of POCT in nucleic acid molecular diagnosis. "at present, academia, business and investment circles all recognize that this kind of technology is an important direction and investment hot spot for the development of innovative products in this field, but because of its high technological starting point and integration, it is difficult to develop, huge consumption of capital and time, and difficulties in cost control, which has led to the lack of such technology in China so far, and only a few international enterprises have developed mature products and obtained medical device registration."
In 2018, Antu Bio and Mobidiag signed an investment "joint venture contract" (JVC) to jointly fund the establishment of a joint venture company Antomobi in China, in which Antu Bio invested 8 million euros to hold 65% shares and 4.3 million euros in currency to hold 35%. As of June 2021, both parties had actually paid in.
In May 2019, Mobidiag and Antomobi signed LDDA,Mobidiag to grant Antomobi the right to commercialize the initial product in the agreed area. In February 2021, Mobidiag signed CMA with Antu Instruments, agreeing that Antu Instruments will produce Novodiag instruments for Mobidiag.
On November 10, 2021, Mobidiag sent a notice of unilateral termination of the above agreement by email. The reason for termination is that Antomobi developed and patented the primer technology without the prior consent of Mobidiag, and disclosed the secret technical information of Mobidiag to Antu creature, in violation of the agreement of the LDDA signed with it.
Antu Biology said that the company does not recognize the validity and reasons for the termination of the above-mentioned Mobidiag. To no avail after communication between the parties, Antu Biology, Antu Moby and Antu Instruments filed an application for arbitration with Mobidiag as the respondent to the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce on April 23, and received a confirmation of acceptance issued by the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce on April 26.
Before Mobidiag proposed to terminate the agreement, in April 2021, Mobidiag shareholders and HologicMaisonbaccarat, Inc. A share sale agreement was signed to sell all of its shares to Hologic,Inc., Antu Biology, which will simultaneously sell its 7.63 per cent stake in Mobidiag at a price of about 46.09 million euros. The announcement said at the time that the transaction would not affect the exclusive license rights related to the Mobidiag-based Novodiag technology platform established by the company and Mobidiag in China, and would not affect the normal operation of the joint venture company.
But the two sides finally went to the road of arbitration.
According to the dispute settlement method agreed by both parties, any arbitral award made by the arbitration tribunal shall be final and binding on both parties, and the arbitration fee shall be borne by the losing party unless otherwise stipulated by the arbitration tribunal. According to the announcement, Antu Biological and other applicants have made more than 10 arbitration requests, including losses caused by Mobidiag's violation of relevant agreements totaling about 500 million yuan, the specific amount will be determined in due course. The case has not yet been heard and is expected to have a positive or minor negative impact on the company's profits and losses.
(article source: China Business Network)
