Eqtec PLC on Wednesday said it is seeking £4 million in damages from Logik Developments Ltd.
The thermochemical conversion technology and engineering company claimed a breach of the share purchase agreement made between Logik Developments and Deeside WTV Ltd, an Eqtec subsidiary, in December 2020.
It said that the claims specifically relate to payments made by Eqtec and Deeside to Logik. Eqtec added that it has since January 2023 attempted to engage Logik, alleging Logik had failed to follow through on its agreements or meet with Eqtec.
Chief Executive Officer David Palumbo said: ‘This was in the interest of developing the site for Toyota and for Flintshire with the goal of demonstrating EQTEC’s advanced syngas technology for an industrial client. Logik’s unwillingness since the start of the year to engage in discussions with us has jeopardised the Project and leaves us with no choice now but to protect the company from bearing the cost of Logik’s actions.’
Due to the matters relating to the claim, it will no longer benefit from ‘meaningful’ revenue it anticipated from the project in the current financial year. The company updated its expects revenue for 2023 to between €2 million and €3 million down sharply from €8.0 million in 2022.
Meanwhile, the company announced that it was ceasing activity on its Billingham project at Haverton Hill in Teesside, citing ‘increasingly challenging market conditions in the UK’.
Chief Operating Officer Jeff Vander Linden said: ‘Our exit from the Billingham project is disappointing but essential. It represents another step in our pivot out of high-risk, high-cost development work. We announced in our 2022 results that we had avoided potential costs totalling €18 million across our portfolio and a good share of those were related to the Billingham project. Despite substantial efforts to finalise our investment case, the recent decisions by prospective, large-scale offtakers to terminate their operations set the project back considerably. We simply cannot justify investment of further effort and expense to get such a large, high-risk project to close.’
Eqtec shares closed 16% lower at 0.13 pence each on Wednesday in London.
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