Cogenpower welcomes preliminary decision by Rome court

Cogenpower announced the preliminary decision of the Regional Administrative Court of Rome on Tuesday, in relation to the dispute between the company and the Italian supervisory agency for energy incentives, the GSE.

The AIM-traded firm had announced on 5 January and 3 May that it was in dispute with the GSE surrounding the company's entitlement to ‘Green Certificates’.

It alleged the GSE had, in the company's view and without any justification, revised downwards the basis of calculation for such entitlement retroactively and had demanded an immediate repayment of over €0.9m, which it subsequently offset against 2015 certificates issued under its revised calculation basis.

“Given the group's previously announced working capital constraints, the company sought an emergency hearing to deal with this matter and had the opportunity to present its case to the Regional Court in Rome, refuting both the right of the GSE to act in the way it had and the GSE's revised method of calculation, which it had not disclosed until the end of May 2017 when required to do so by the court,” the company explained.

It announced on Tuesday that, following the hearing on 14 June, the Regional Court had pronounced that the company's case had merit and a definitive ruling would be made at a future hearing to take place on 23 March 2018.

“The company believes that this represents an important positive step forward in this highly disruptive dispute and will make further announcements as the situation develops.”