Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – Ekoenergiz blocked the attempt of its bondholders to acquire its gas pipes. Two of them have appealed.
Lech Gizelbach, the owner of Ekoenergiz which was the first company to compete with monopolist PGNiG, has won its first battle with OFE Winterthur, Skarbiec-Obligacja and PHT. The court in Olsztyn decided that the companies had no right to demand gas pipes system from Ekoenergiz, which wanted to import gas from the East. The company issued bonds in 2002 to be buy out in 2007. The bondholders invested PLN 12.8m (EUR 3.3m) including PLN 10.5m paid by OFE Winterthur pension fund. The bondholders demanded the bonds to be bought earlier but Ekoenergiz failed to do it. The court decided they were not right and now the companies have to cover the court proceedings costs of PLN 7,200.
The amount may be even higher.
“I can now file a suit for compensation from OFE Winterthur, Capital Partners and Pomorska Spolka Gazownictwa (part of PGNiG group) because of lost contracts and income, which destroyed my company”, Lech Gizelbach said.
He said he would fight agains the companies before and demand PLN 150m.
OFE Winterthur and PHT do not agree with the court decision.
“Winterthur OFE has appealed. We won’t comment until the case is concluded”, Mateusz Sobula from OFE Winterthur said.
“Mr Gizelbach manipulates with facts and wants to win some time. Ekoenergiz has troubles because it is managed in a wrong way. We have a right to defend ourselves and we want to acquire Ekoenergiz assets which was a security of buying out the bonds. We have appealed”, Wladyslaw Kaczorkiewicz, PHT CEO said.
Skarbiec-Obligacja said it was not the owner of the bonds any longer.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.258)