Sunovia and EPIR Technologies in contract dispute

SARASOTA, USA: Sunovia Energy Technologies Inc., a clean-tech company specializing in solar technology and LED lighting, is currently in a dispute with EPIR Technologies Inc., which may ultimately require that Sunovia commence litigation against EPIR.

Sunovia’s chairman and CEO, Carl Smith, said: “We have notified EPIR that it is in breach of our agreement and submitted a formal request to EPIR, as a shareholder of EPIR, to deliver certain corporate and financial records. No lawsuit has been filed by either company but our management has grown concerned that it may be required to commence litigation. We will, however, continue to seek an amicable solution to these issues.”

Smith added: “Sunovia and EPIR established and agreed upon timeframes, in writing and signed by both companies, that required EPIR to deliver a 1MW to 3MW pilot production facility in early 2010 for solar CPV Cadmium Telluride wafers. This date was not met by EPIR. In addition, we requested comprehensive financial records from EPIR. We believe we need these records for financial reporting purposes and that the records should be made available to us as a shareholder of EPIR and under the agreements between the companies. EPIR has disputed our assertions but indicated that it remains willing to attempt to resolve our differences.”

“Sunovia has provided more than $11 million in cash and equity to EPIR, and we have notified EPIR that all further capital payments to EPIR under our agreements will be suspended until this dispute is resolved. In order to further pursue this matter, we have engaged Funkhouser Vegosen Liebman & Dunn Ltd., a Chicago-based law firm, as special counsel.”

Smith ended by saying that: “We continue to develop the CPV solar system and we are already in negotiations to insure that we will be able to secure a replacement solar wafer component for our solar CPV system from an alternate provider should EPIR fail to fulfill its obligations. We are working diligently to ensure that we remain on schedule for our solar system deployment and we fully expect to commence with initial installations of the new system on schedule.”