Germany's PNE Wind avoids investigation by public prosecutors

The Public Prosecutor’s office in Stade will not open an investigation into German wind farm developer PNE Wind AG (ETR:PNE3) over criminal charges filed by two supervisory board members.

The company was accused of betraying the party, election fraud and suppression of documents, but due to a lack of initial suspicion investigation proceedings will not be launched, it said on Tuesday.

Commenting on the news, CEO Martin Billhardt said that the company was “once again subjected to public damage for no reason”.

A week earlier, PNE held an unusually long annual general meeting, which ended with a police raid. At the meeting shareholders were supposed to vote on a number of proposals, including the dismissal of Volker Friedrichsen and two other supervisory board members.

PNE is claiming roughly EUR 6.2 million (USD 6.9m) in damages from a Friedrichsen company under a 2013 deal to take control of sector firm WKN AG. PNE is examining further legal claims of EUR 17 million, Billhardt added in the latest press release.

Last year, PNE bought the 54% stake in WKN held at the time by Volker Friedrichsen Beteiligungs-GmbH, paying a sum based on a company valuation of EUR 93 million. Now, it claims that Volker had overvalued certain wind projects developed by WKN on the date of the stake purchase.

Last week's shareholder meeting ended without results and the company’s board will now issue an invitation to a new one.

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