Cogenpower welcomes new Italian competition legislation
Hostmore
18.85p
13:19 24/04/24
Low-carbon technology energy business Cogenpower announced on Thursday that the Italian legislature has enacted a new law which prohibits state monopolies from retroactively revising decisions they have previously made, if such revisions would be detrimental to the affected party.
The AIM-traded firm said the law had particular relevance to its business, as its Italy subsidiary SRL had previously announced that it had been in dispute with the GSE, the Italian state entity overseeing the disbursement of Green Certificate environmental incentives, with regards to the company's entitlement to Green Certificates.
It said the GSE had sought to revise downwards its previously audited and approved entitlement to Green Certificates, and had consequently claimed a repayment of more than €0.9m, which it subsequently offset against 2015 certificates issued.
“This new legislation comes just over two months after SRL had a positive decision from the Regional Court in Rome, as announced on 27 June, in which SRL had successfully contested the GSE's right to offset their demand for repayment against entitlements to Green Certificates for 2015 and 2016 and that the GSE's basis of recalculation of entitlements was flawed,” the board explained in its statement.
“The preliminary judgement was that the company's case had merit, although the full judgement of the court would not be announced until March 2018, due to its significance as a legal precedent.”
Cogenpower also announced on Thursday that the GSE had made an initial payment to SRL of €0.392m.
It said the funds had predominantly been used to settle amounts owed to certain trade creditors of SRL and put the company in an improved working capital position.
“There has been no further acknowledgement of indebtedness by the GSE,” the board noted.
“However, with the enactment of this new law, the board is confident of recovering the outstanding amount of approximately €1m which the company is owed by the GSE.”
On 26 June, Cogenpower announced that it had become apparent that it would not be in a position to publish its audited report and accounts for the year ended 31 December 2016 by 30 June 2017 in accordance with rule 19 of the AIM Rules for Companies.
As a result, the company's shares were suspended from trading on AIM.
Cogenpower said it was continuing to make “good progress” with the audit, and anticipated being in a position to publish the annual report and accounts - along with the half yearly report to 30 June - by the end of September.
The company's ordinary shares remained suspended, pending publication of its annual report and accounts.
“We are pleased that this law has been passed, reinforcing the regional court's decision in June, which fully supports the company's position,” said Cogenpower CEO Francesco Vallone.
“Despite the damage this dispute has done to the company's prospects, we are now looking forward to settling the matter and growing our business again.”