20th Oct 2014 07:40
LONDON (Alliance News) - Acta S.p.A., based near Pisa in Italy, Monday said its appeal to suspend the provisional executive authority of the 2010 arbitration award of EUR1.2 million plus costs, together about EUR1.4 million, obtained by a minority shareholder of a group subsidiary company against Acta in July 2013, has been rejected.
Although the claim is fully provided for in the clean energy product developer and manufacturer's accounts, the rejection of the appeal means the hydrogen energy company is now either required to pay the ruled amount, negotiate a settlement or could be subject to enforced actions.
"The board is disappointed with the outcome of the court's decision and is considering all appropriate measures to protect the company's position and the interests of the shareholders and will provide an update in due course," Acta said in a statement.
In 2008, Del Bono, a 10% shareholder of IdeaLab S.r.l., a group subsidiary company 90% owned by Acta, undertook an arbitration action over a patent owned by IdeaLab, licenced to Acta from 2004 to 2008. It is no longer used by Acta.
This resulted in an award of EUR1.2 million plus costs against Acta in December 2010. According to Acta, the initial arbitration judgement provided provisional executive power, meaning that Del Bono could take enforcement actions against the company and its assets to recover the sums due under the award.
Acta appealed to the Florence Court against the award and applied to have the provisional executive power suspended. Suspension was granted in December 2011, pending the outcome of the appeal.
In July 2013 Acta said the Florence Court had rejected the appeal, prompting it to appeal to the High Court, though it expects the process to take a number of years. It also applied again to the same Florence Court to have the provisional executive power suspended on the same grounds of the previous application, pending the final outcome of the High Court appeal process.
The arbitration decision will not become definitive unless confirmed in due course by the High Court, an outcome which Acta considers to be highly unlikely.
Acta shares were Monday quoted down 14% at 1.95 pence.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.