UPDATED: Development company part owned by Preston cricket hero Freddie Flintoff is being sued for £4m

Manchester-based Logik Developments, has had legal proceedings issued against it by EQTEC, an Irish-based bioscience energy company.

The matter concerns a waste processing facility project in Deeside, next to a Toyota plant, and specifically payments made by the EQTEC, and for breach of the share purchase agreement.

The total amounts claimed by the EQTEC (referred to as the Group), total £4 million.

What’s going on?

In a public statement, EQTEC state: “The Company has, since January 2023, made numerous attempts to engage Logik in constructive discussions toward resolution of these matters, more recently extending several invitations through the Company's legal counsel to seek to make clear the seriousness of its contentions and to formally invite Logik to work them through constructively.

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"In response to every invitation, Logik either rejected the offer or failed to follow through on its agreements to meet with the Group.”

EQTEC states that it has introduced to Logik a number of prospective investors and buyers of Logik WTE, but claims that Logik directly engaged with them to acquire the site without the involvement of the Company and without the approval of the stakeholders.

The statement adds: “Due to the matters set out above, the Company will no longer benefit from the meaningful revenue which was expected to be received from the Project in the current financial year.”

"Frustrating”

David Palumbo, CEO of EQTEC, said: “"We have consistently reiterated our dedication to the Deeside Project and to Toyota, whose strategic ambitions for carbon-neutrality have required timely progress by us and our partners.

"It has been frustrating to have to direct our energies this year toward resolution of issues with Logik, rather than toward further progressing the Project.

"It is also disappointing to find ourselves in a position where we are forced to take legal action against one of our partners for attempting to go it alone whilst ignoring our common commitments to the Project.

"The Company has consistently supported the Project and our partners by amending agreements to adapt to evolving commercial realities, and we have made investment after investment to keep the Project moving forward.

"This was in the interest of developing the site for Toyota and for Flintshire with the goal of demonstrating EQTEC's advanced syngas technology for an industrial client. Logik's unwillingness since the start of the year to engage in discussions with us has jeopardised the Project and leaves us with no choice now but to protect the Company from bearing the cost of Logik's actions."

Freddie’s role

On the Logik Developments website, it describes Mr Flintoff as having “a long-standing affinity with the North and a deep understanding of the property industry.”

It adds: “Although enjoying a busy career in media, Andrew remains involved in Logik’s business on a day to day basis, with a particular focus on relations with our funding partners and other institutional and high net worth investors.”

What does Logik have to say?

A spokesman said they refute the claims and will have “no hesitation” in defending their position through the courts if that is what is ultimately required.

They said: “We note the recent announcement from EQTEC plc that they have issued a claim against Logik Developments Limited and Logik WTE Limited in relation to sums allegedly due to them arising from the Deeside Project and a share purchase agreement dated 7 December 2020. However, at present, no such claim has been served on either Logik Developments Limited or Logik WTE Limited and we cannot, therefore, comment on the precise nature of EQTEC’s claim.

It is correct that we have been in discussions with EQTEC in recent months about their alleged claims and such discussions have been conducted through legal channels via our respective solicitors. We note from EQTEC’s announcement that the total amount claimed is circa £4 million. This is surprising to us given that all pre-action correspondence to date has been limited in value to claims amounting to circa £2.9 million. It therefore appears that EQTEC have acted prematurely in issuing Court proceedings against Logik in circumstances where they have not provided any details about the balance of their alleged claim (totaling £1.1 million) as they are specifically required to do as part of any legal process before Court proceedings are issued.

We refute EQTEC’s allegations entirely and in the event that any claim is served on Logik, this will be defended to the fullest extent.

We also note that EQTEC claim that they have made numerous attempts to engage with us towards a resolution of these matters more recently through legal counsel. EQTEC also claim that we have rejected invitations to work through the issues constructively or failed to follow through on an agreement to meet with them. This is, quite simply, incorrect and as part of the recent correspondence passing between our respective solicitors, it was actually us who offered to meet with EQTEC’s representatives to try and engage in commercial discussions with them in an attempt to resolve matters; however no response at all has been received from EQTEC or their solicitors to this offer of a meeting and that was where matters stood prior to EQTEC’s recent announcement that it has issued a claim against Logik.

In the event that EQTEC consider that they have a claim against Logik for any alleged breach of the SPA or the Deeside Project, then that is a matter for them and this will present them with a damages claim; however, as explained, we refute EQTEC’s allegations entirely and consider that there is no legal basis to their claims. We will have no hesitation in defending our position through the Courts if that is what is ultimately required.