FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Swedish utility Vattenfall (VATN.UL) expects to hear only in 2018 from a U.S. arbitration court whether it can claim up to 4.7 billion euros (£4.2 billion) in compensation from the German government for forcing it to halt nuclear production in Germany.
"I think we have to expect now that that’s being drawn into next year," Chief Executive Magnus Hall said on a webcast with journalists on Friday. "And we don’t have any real indication of exactly when they will come back."
Vattenfall, much of whose turnover is derived from its activities in Germany, had previously expected a ruling by an arbitration court in Washington, D.C., that it had turned to, in the autumn of 2017.
Vattenfall had to permanently idle the Kruemmel and Brunsbuettel reactors in northern Germany in 2011 when Berlin decided to close old reactors and accelerate the exit programme for remaining ones in reaction to the Fukushima disaster.
Vattenfall sought damages from the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), because it had this option as a non-German company.
