Reuters: Bulgaria Says Oman has Withdrawn Arbitration Claim over Corpbank

Oman's sovereign wealth fund has withdrawn an 80 million euro ($89.98 million) claim against Bulgaria over the collapse of Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank), the Bulgarian finance ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Oman's State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) owned a 30 percent stake in Corpbank, which was Bulgaria's fourth largest lender before collapsing in 2014 following a bank run.

Oman took the Balkan country to arbitration at the Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in 2015 over the way the bank's collapse was handled, saying Bulgaria had breached standards for treatment of foreign investors.

 "After two rounds of written defence statements, in December 2018, State General Reserve Fund has withdrawn its claims against Bulgaria without the possibility of bringing them again before this or another international tribunal," the finance ministry said in a statement.

"With this, all claims of State General Reserve Fund can be considered as definitely dropped and the case - concluded in favour of Bulgaria," the ministry said.

On Thursday, the website of ICSID showed that the case was still pending, with the last entry made at the end of February when each party had filed a second submission of costs.

The SGRF was not immediately available to comment.