Envio AG: Effects of the concentrations of hazardous materials does not put the existence of sites in Dortmund/network of companies at risk

Dortmund, 1st June 2010: Envio AG, an international full service provider in the environmental services and recycling sector, comments on the possible effects of concentrations of hazardous materials at the Dortmund site.

As already disclosed on 20th May this year, the State Agency for Nature, the Environment and Consumer Protection in Germany (LANUV) took samples at the Group’s site in Dortmund at the end of April that showed increased levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and furans.

As has come to light in the meantime, the sweep tests by the state agency also revealed noticeable PCB levels on the sites of three other companies. Of the three companies, two had not been supplied by Envio. The district government in Arnsberg, which published the test results on 28th May 2010, concluded that there must be further areas around the port that could be responsible for the PCB contamination apart from Envio’s industrial site. Envio AG has already issued a statement on the announcement by the district government and emphasised the necessity for a comprehensive, careful and objective explanation of the events. Envio would continue to work closely with the responsible authorities. The company has also arranged for its own investigation by an independent expert.

In view of the fact that the Group has virtually had its entire site cleaned and searched for a possible source of the concentrations of hazardous materials in conjunction with an expert recommended by the supervisory authority, the resulting temporary stoppage at the Dortmund site has various implications for the Group:

Based on the initial investigations Envio assumes that the contamination on the Dortmund site (insofar as it was caused by its own operation) is essentially only temporary in nature and can therefore be rectified quickly. It is therefore essential that the expert identifies the possible sources and then sets out measures to ensure that an operating business can continue to run significantly below the operationally approved emission values.

The board is confident that the expert will be able to deliver an appropriate report by the end of June at the latest. Then all necessary steps should be taken in order to remedy a possible source of error permanently. As it is still impossible to judge how long these steps will take, the Group is preparing for the operating business in Dortmund to be shut down for several weeks, if not even for several months. This approach does not harbour any threat to the existence of the Group, however. On the one hand, the operation in Korea will continue to operate as planned. On the other, the Group will be able to fall back on liquid reserves, so that no liquidity gap should arise over a longer term.
However, the board will only able to carry out a final assessment of the effects, once the possible source of error can be found on the site and an appropriate solution is implemented. As soon as new findings are available, Envio AG will contact the public immediately in order to explain any further course of action.

About Envio AG:
Envio AG is a full-service provider in the environmental services sector. Its core competencies are in the decontamination, recycling and disposal of PCB-contaminated transformers. Envio AG – the result of a management buyout of the ABB Group – is one of the world’s leading providers in this sector. One of the main competitive advantages of the company is the key technology LTR² (Low-Temperature Rinsing) which is one of the safest and most environmentally friendly methods of transformer decontamination. As well as disposing of PCBs, Envio AG also recycles transformers once they are free of hazardous materials. Anther source of income for the company is the selling of secondary raw materials such as copper, aluminium and iron to be recycled. In 2008 Envio branched out into the important business sector of construction and operating biogas digesters. They now produce modularly constructed digesters of over two mega Watts in size.