Swiss-headquartered group Landis+Gyr has scheduled a news conference for today to inform of the reasons behind its decision to legally challenge, at the Council of State, Greece’s Supreme Administrative Court, its disqualification from the final round of a tender staged by Greek electricity distribution network operator DEDDIE/HEDNO for a lucrative one billion-euro contract concerning the installation of approximately 7.5 million smart meters throughout the country.

At today’s session, Landis+Gyr also plans to offer an update on the next steps it intends to take concerning the smart-meters tender and also inform on its overall strategy for the Greek market.

Landis+Gyr’s chief executive officer Werner Lieberherr and the head official of the group’s Greek subsidiary, Aristidis Pappas, have already suggested a Supreme Court setback for the Swiss group would jeopardize a multi-million-euro investment plan at its production plant in Corinth, west of Athens.

Landis+Gyr was disqualified from the tender by DEDDIE/HEDNO as it declared, as a sub-contractor, a production facility other than its Corinth plant, serving as an international hub for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Landis+Gyr took its case to the Council of State after a preliminary appeal was rejected by the Hellenic Single Public Procurement Authority.

Greek company Protasis, partnering with France’s Sagemcom Energy & Telecom SAS; US corporation Itron’s Spanish subsidiary; fellow US firm Elster Rometrics’ Romanian subsidiary; and Slovenia’s Iskraemeco have qualified for the tender’s final round.

Over the past decade or so, DEDDIE/HEDNO and parent company PPC, the power utility, have announced a series of tenders for the procurement and installation of smart meters, ultimately to no avail. They have either not taken place or not been completed.