Lawsuit Over $124 Million Sale of GP Global Fujairah Terminal

The Fujairah terminal has 412,000 m3 of storage capacity, with 17 product tanks and two utility tanks. Image Credit: GP Global

Gulf Petrochem FZC has launched a lawsuit to reverse the sale of restructuring commodity trading firm GP Global's $124 million sale of its Fujairah bunkering terminal.

As Ship & Bunker reported in 2022, FTI Consulting -- running GP Global during its restructuring process -- sold the Fujairah terminal to Mount Row Partners for $124 million in May of that year. Funds for the purchase of the terminal are understood to have been owned by Delaware Life Insurance in the US.

Gulf Petrochem FZC filed a lawsuit in Dubai against Mount Row and Rod Sutton in July seeking an annulment of the asset purchase agreement and AED 100 million ($27.2 million) in damages, a source familiar with the situation told Ship & Bunker.

Sutton, working for FTI Consulting at the time, was appointed GP Global's chief restructuring officer in August 2020. He now works for a different restructuring firm, Fortune Ark Restructuring.

Sutton told Ship & Bunker he is unaware of the details of the case as he has not formally been served papers related to it. A Mount Row representative did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit alleges that a higher bid of $135 million for the terminal could have been accepted, and that the facility's land lease was sold alongside the terminal without authority and for no additional value.

In addition, shipping firm V8 Pool Inc had been awarded an attachment against the terminal by a court in Sharjah as part of its legal fight to reclaim money owed to it by GP Global, but was not informed in advance about the sale, according to the source.

GP Global went into restructuring in July 2020 following financial difficulties, and subsequently announced it had uncovered fraud by some of its employees in the UAE. The firm had been a significant presence in global bunker markets, as well as in other commodity markets.

The Fujairah terminal has 412,000 m3 of storage capacity, with 17 product tanks and two utility tanks, and can handle fuel oil, gasoil and cutter stock. The terminal was historically handling as much as 7.4 million mt/year of refined product deliveries, of which a large share was marine fuels.