“Eurointegration Projects” takes over the shareholder rights of the Lithuanian Innovation Center from the ministries

“We welcome the court’s ruling, which stated that the auction for the sale of LIC’s shareholder rights took place in accordance with all the rules. We are glad that this stage is finally over – we will now move on to the evaluation of LIC’s performance. We see the institution as our partners, so LIC will continue to operate as a separate entity, all processes will continue to be carried out as usual. We will also strive to maintain the legal status of LIC, so it will remain a public and non-profit institution”, Darius Gurskis, head of UAB “Eurointegracijos projektai” (EIP), is quoted in the company’s announcement.

According to the representatives of EIP, the acquisition of LIC was a strategic move, beneficial due to the competences of the institution’s employees in the technology and private business sectors.

However, it is stated that LIC employees will not be directly involved in profit-seeking activities and the company does not plan to have direct financial benefits from this acquisition.

The owner of the rights of one-third of the shareholder is the Confederation of Lithuanian Industrialists.

The conflict between the business organization and the Ministry of Economy and Innovation, as “Verslo žinios” wrote, arose when LIC could not be connected to the Innovation Agency. Since the state was not the only shareholder of LIC, changing, merging or dividing the institution was not as easy as the state-run institutions – “Business Lithuania”, the Lithuanian Business Support Agency (LVPA) or the Science, Innovations and Technologies Agency (MITA). After the failure to integrate LIC into the Innovation Agency, two of its participants – the Ministry of Economy and Innovation and the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports – withdrew from the institution, an auction was announced, which was won by UAB “Eurointegracijos projektai”. She offered EUR 36,000 for LIC shareholder rights.

The then UAB “Kauno Petrašiūnų labor market training center” (now “PMC Training”) and Arnoldas Vasiliauskas, who filed the claim, tried to prove in court that they had offered more at the auction – 37,000 EUR. But the auctioneer allegedly did not respond to this and did not accept the offer.

“The financial results and documents of LIC satisfy us and we consider the investment in LIC a success. It’s a pity that this process took so long, but we have no doubt that the final result will be a step forward for both us and LIC, which will continue to work for the benefit of Lithuania”, says D. Gurskis.

The court’s decision can still be appealed to the Supreme Court of Lithuania.