Pro média

United Energy sues the Czech Coal Group for CZK 118 million for unpaid heat

14.4.2010

Today, United Energy brought an action against the Czech Coal Group, seeking CZK 118 million for heat supplies for which the latter has not paid. The Czech Coal Group's overall debt to United Energy for heat supplies is currently CZK 143 million.
In February 2008, companies of the Czech Coal Group stopped paying for the heat supplied to them by United Energy. As early as 2008, United Energy took legal steps to seek payment, but court proceedings have not yet been concluded with finality in this case.

Czech Coal is trying to dispute its liabilities by an unjustified attempt to set them off against an artificially construed receivable for coal supplies in 2006, for which Czech Coal unilaterally (without any contractual basis) charged CZK 51.19/GJ. United Energy did not accept this exaggerated and contractually unwarranted price and continued to pay a contractual price of CZK 31.62/GJ. Subsequently, Czech Coal was fined by the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic for charging unreasonably high coal prices in 2005 and 2006.
United Energy's new action concerns the Czech Coal Group's debt of CZK 118 million (plus late charges) for heat supplies between February 2008 and the end of January 2010, for which the latter has not paid. At the end of March 2010, the Czech Coal Group's debt to United Energy for the unpaid heat supplies totalled, cumulatively, CZK 143 million (plus late charges).
Because of the overall amount of the Czech Coal Group's debt to United Energy, we regard the filing of the insolvency petition against United Energy by the Czech Coal Group (or, rather, Litvínovská uhelná of the Czech Coal Group) as absurd and completely unfounded. There was no factual reason for Czech Coal to take this step.
"We believe that the only and genuine reason for Czech Coal to make this purely self-serving manoeuvre was its effort to force United Energy to resume taking brown coal from Czech Coal," said Petr Jeník, United Energy CEO. The receivable that Czech Coal is trying to demand as part of insolvency proceedings has ceased to exist by way of a set-off.
At the same time, United Energy is preparing legal steps intended to impose personal legal liability of the Czech Coal Group's specific officers for wrongfully initiating the filing of the insolvency petition against United Energy.
United Energy is one of the leading independent Czech electricity and heat producers. It operates a combined heat and power generation plant in Komořany near Most, having a total installed electrical capacity of 239 MWe. It supplies heat to 35,000 households in the towns of Most and Litvínov, and also to a number of commercial properties, industrial companies, health facilities, schools, etc. UNITED ENERGY is part of the ENERGETICKÝ A PRŮMYSLOVÝ HOLDING group.

Martin Maňák
Director of Communications
ENERGETICKÝ A PRŮMYSLOVÝ HOLDING

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