The Italians still hope to go ahead with the project. Otherwise, they will seek 1.6 million euros in damages, it wrote.
In a ruling favorable to Gemmo, an arbitration court last February ordered Vilnius’ local authority to negotiate with the Italians for another four months and to seek partnership with them, but the city has appealed the decision to the Lithuanian Court of Appeals.
The local authority estimates that it would cost it 31 million euros to upgrade the capital’s street lighting network on its own.
The Italian-led consortium, which operates in Lithuania under the name of Vilniuslux, would invest 25.7 million euros and would operate and maintain the network for 18 years at a cost of 5.2 million euros annually. That would bring the total value of the contract to around 98 million euros. The value would also depend on variables such electricity prices.
The local authority back in May 2015 did not extend the contract signed with Gemmo in 2014, saying that the company had failed to meet certain conditions and to provide a list of banks that would finance the project.
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