VILNIUS — Lithuanian power grid company VST was awarded 520 million litai (€152 million) in damages from NDX Energija by the Vilnius regional court Sept. 23 on the grounds that NDX Energija improperly handled the VST’s privatization.

NDX Energija, a subsidiary of Lithuania’s powerful, privately-held VP Grupė company, privatized VST in 2003 before transferring its ownership to LEO LT, the joint venture between the national government and NDX Energija that was going to replace the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant.

After the European Commission began investigating the LEO LT and the Constitutional Court declared its founding unconstitutional, the government used its majority share to vote to disband LEO LT at a shareholder’s meeting earlier this month.

Meanwhile the now-LEO LT controlled VST shook up the company management at the beginning of August, with the CEO Aidas Ignatavičius and two other board members agreeing to step down and be replaced. Then on Aug. 27, VST sued its former parent company NDX Energija for transferring the loans incurred during VST’s privatization from NDX’s Energija’s books to VST’s, in violation of national and EU laws that bar state-owned companies from financing their own privatization.

The court decided to put an arrest on real estate and other assets of NDX Energija for the sum of 520 million litai, excluding NDX Energija’s LEO LT stocks. If there is not enough value in the assets to cover the amount of damages, NDX Energija will have to pay cash.

NDX Energija has not said whether it will appeal the decision or not.

“We just accept it and so far we don’t have a written decision in documents handed to us. It’s a bit early to handle it, whether we will file an appeal or not,” Ignas Staškevičius, chairman of NDX Energija’s board of directors, told Baltic Reports. “Actually it’s only a part of the process. I just see it as a part of the process of the liquidation of LEO LT.”

VST said that it needed to study the case report further before commenting on the judge’s decision. Lithuania’s energy ministry is not commenting on the case.