Announcement

Regarding the large-scale action conducted by the Prosecutors’ Office of Republic of Bulgaria on May, 28th, which was associated with investigation on the application of certain aspects of the environmental laws on the territory of the country, there were a number of statements from persons and institutions distributed in the media with direct or indirect association to the activities of Monbat AD, for which we would like to make the following announcement: 

The Board of Directors and the management team of Monbat persistently provides and secures the necessary level of assistance to the authorities, but at the same time, for the sake of accuracy, it has to comply with and to the true business activity of Monbat.

Monbat produces batteries, procuring lead as a raw material from its recycling facilities. Monbat does not process general waste (trash) and does not have such facilities. The lead alloys coming out of the recycling plant are necessary to produce batteries. Given the high demand, the produced lead alloys have not been sold for export. 

To secure the volumes for the Bulgarian entity of recycling, Monbat imports raw material from its factory in Italy. This raw material is “paste” and is generated from the technological crushing of the batteries. This raw material is categorized as hazardous material and as such, its transportation falls under strict regulation. 

Monbat is in possession of the necessary notification issued by the Ministry of the Environment and Waters which is a must for the transportation of this “paste”, and it is being transported predominantly with own transport vehicles.  Monbat has never been involved in transportation of refuse and/or trash and trucks, property of Monbat, have never been detained. 

The technological waste from the recycling, that cannot be further recycled, is deposited with a licensed operator. The activities of such license operators are fully regulated in compliance with the relevant legislation of Republic of Bulgaria and abroad.

Further on, any movement of this technological waste is always accompanied with transportation documentation, hand-over protocols, and invoices. All these primary accounting papers are properly documented and booked in the appropriate accounting and tax manners. 

There are no companies, owned and/or controlled, by Monbat  which conduct business activities for depositing and utilization of the residue technological waste. Monbat is allowed to deposit residue technological waste only to licensed operators in full compliance with the regulations and in line with the economic justification for the company.

Sincerely,

Board of Directors of Monbat AD