Eco Baltia Group's Lithuanian company Ecoservice's total claim against Compensa reaches €13.6 million
The Lithuanian environmental services company Ecoservice, part of the largest environmental resource management and recycling group in the Baltics, Eco Baltia, has clarified its civil claim against the Latvian branch of "Compensa Vienna Insurance Group" in court. Following the submission of additional calculations and evidence related to the damages of business interruption, the total amount of the claim reaches EUR 13.6 million.
As reported previously, the insurance claim relates to the losses suffered by Ecoservice when, on 5 August 2023, a fire at Ecoservice’s waste sorting centre caused widespread damage, destroying the building, the waste sorting equipment, part of the inventory and forcing a partial shutdown of its operations.
Despite the fact that the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Fire Protection and Rescue carried out investigations and established the essential circumstances of the fire, the insurer has failed to fulfill its obligations and has not paid insurance compensation in accordance with the terms of the insurance contract.
"We hope that Compensa will start fulfilling its contractual obligations and will compensate Ecoservice for the damages suffered by the company without delaying the process," says Jurgita Nacevičienė, Manager of Ecoservice.
The claim was filed with the Riga City Court at the beginning of October of this year, and it contained calculations and evidence for a part of the insurance claim in the amount of EUR 7.4 million. Now, additional evidence and calculations related to the business interruption costs were added, bringing the total claim amount to EUR 13.6 million. The losses were calculated by international financial experts based on the company’s operational data and collected evidence. This was necessary as the insurance contract did not provide clear instructions for these calculations, and the insurer, during the damage administration process, not only refrained from offering any methodology for assessing the business interruption losses but also repeatedly rejected the calculations submitted by Ecoservice.
The document submitted to the court shows that the Latvian branch of Compensa is unreasonably delaying the decision on the insurance claim. Almost one and a half years after the accident, the insurance company has neither decided whether the accident should be declared insured nor whether to pay the full or partial indemnity.
After the fire, Ecoservice is rebuilding its capacity using its own and borrowed funds. It is estimated that the ongoing reconstruction of the sorting centre will require a total of EUR 18 million.
About Eco Baltia
Eco Baltia is the largest environmental resource management Group in the Baltics by turnover, providing the full waste management cycle from waste collection and sorting to logistics, wholesale and recycling of secondary raw materials.
Eco Baltia closed 2023 with a record consolidated turnover of EUR 218.4 million, an increase of 4% compared to 2022. Eco Baltia's total consolidated revenue (pro forma) in 2023 amounted to EUR 242.5 million.
The Group employs more than 2,700 people in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic. Its leading companies are ITERUM AS (until June 6, 2024 - PET Baltija), Eco Baltia vide SIA, Latvijas Zaļais punkts SIA, Nordic Plast SIA, JUMIS SIA in Sigulda, TESIL Fibres in the Czech Republic, UAB Ecoservice in Lithuania and, from November 2023, Metal Plast in Poland.
"The shareholders of Eco Baltia are the private equity fund INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund (52.81% through UAB BSGF Salvus), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (30.51%) and Māris Simanovičs (15.93% through SIA Enrial Holdings and 0.75% through Penvi Investment Ltd).
About Ecoservice:
Ecoservice is a Lithuanian environmental management company providing services such as collection, management and sorting of municipal, packaging, green, construction, demolition and bulky waste, as well as pavement, urban and road maintenance services.
The turnover of the group in 2023 was almost EUR 65 million. The company is 100% owned by Eco Baltia vide, part of the environmental and waste management group Eco Baltia AS.
Additional information:
Alise Zvaigzne
Eco Baltia vide
Head of Public Relations
Phone +371 28780467
alise.zvaigzne@ecobaltiavide.lv
www.ecobaltiavide.lv
www.ecobaltia.lv
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