I. INTRODUCTION

A. PARTIES

1. The Claimant in this arbitration is ST-AD GmbH, a company incorporated in Germany, with its registered office located at Oppenheimstraße 2, Eisenach, Thüringen 99817, Germany (“STAD” or the “Claimant”). The Claimant is represented by Prof. Dr. univ. Arsène Verny, M.E.S., Goethestraße 17, Dresden 01109, Germany, and Mr. Svetlin Dimitrov Stoynev, 11 Gen. Totleben Boulevard, 3rd Floor, 11th Apartment, Sofia 1606, Bulgaria.

2. The Respondent is the Republic of Bulgaria (“Bulgaria” or the “Respondent”). The Respondent is represented by Mr. Stanimir Alexandrov, Mr. James Mendenhall, Ms. Jennifer Haworth McCandless and Ms. Kerry K. Lee of Sidley Austin LLP, 1501 K Street, N.W., Washington, District of Columbia 20005, United States of America, Mr. Lazar Tomov of Tomov & Tomov, 4 Svetoslav Terter Street, 1st Floor, Sofia 1124, Bulgaria, and Mr. Ivan Kondov from Bulgaria’s Ministry of Finance, 102 Rakovski Street, Sofia 1040, Bulgaria.

B. BACKGROUND OF THE DISPUTE

3. A dispute has arisen between ST-AD and Bulgaria, in respect of which ST-AD initiated arbitration proceedings pursuant to Article 4(3) of the Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the People’s Republic of Bulgaria concerning the Reciprocal Encouragement and Protection of Investments1 (the “BIT” or “Germany-Bulgaria BIT”). The subject matter of this dispute concerns an alleged expropriation of 15,600 m2, or 99.6%, of the land and factory and commercial buildings on a tract of land located in Sofia, Bulgaria (the “Property”).2