Contract: meaning of reasonable endeavours

In Rhodia International Holdings & Anor v Huntsman International LLC, the High Court decided that where a clause in a contract, requiring a party to use reasonable endeavours to obtain a third-party consent, contained specific steps (in this case the provision of a parent-company guarantee) that had to be taken as part of the exercise of reasonable endeavours, the party was obliged to take those steps, even though they might be detrimental to the party's own commercial interests. The Court also considered the difference between the terms "reasonable endeavours" and "best endeavours" and expressed the view, obiter, that the former imposed a less stringent obligation than the latter.