Māris Simanovičs, Chairman of the Management Board of AS Eco Baltia: “Our approach to sustainability is based on three priorities – returning materials to circulation, using energy more efficiently and from cleaner sources, and supporting the well-being of employees and communities. These areas are closely integrated into the development of our business, and we have set specific, measurable targets for them. In 2025, we continued to invest in the group’s capacity and at the same time achieved our highest-ever net revenue – EUR 282.3 million. This confirms that the purposeful integration of sustainability principles into business strengthens both our competitiveness and our long-term growth.”

One of the Group’s most significant sustainability indicators is its positive contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, the volume of emissions avoided through the Group’s activities was 5.5 times greater than the emissions generated by its operations; by 2025, this ratio had increased to 10.5 times. The total volume of avoided emissions reached 401.9 thousand tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. In 2025, the Group’s greenhouse gas emissions intensity was 93.34 tCO₂e per EUR 1 million of net revenue.

Progress was also achieved in energy use. In 2025, the Group’s total energy consumption amounted to 156,003 MWh, of which 26.4% came from renewable energy sources. Furthermore, 65% of all electricity purchased by the Group was generated from renewable sources, including hydropower, solar and wind energy, with its renewable origin verified by certificates of origin provided by the supplier.

Targeted investments help recover more recyclable materials

One of Eco Baltia’s most significant investment projects in 2025 was the Ecoservice waste sorting centre in Vilnius, Lithuania, which reopened following a full rebuild. EUR 18 million was invested in its modernisation – the largest investment in Ecoservice’s 30-year history.

The sorting centre uses some of the most advanced sorting technologies available, together with AI-powered optical scanners that make it possible to recover 15–20% more recyclable material from the same volume of waste than the previous plant. Similar technology is also in operation at the Latvian plant of Eco Baltia vide, the environmental resource management company of the Eco Baltia group.

Safety and employee well-being – one of the main areas of social responsibility

Last year, the Eco Baltia group continued its work on improving occupational safety. Māris Simanovičs points out that safety in the company is a core value, not simply a target. “We are building a safe and well-organised working environment in which the number of accidents and injuries is reduced to a minimum, achieved through everyday work discipline rather than one-off campaigns. Compared with the year before, the number of recordable work-related accidents across the Eco Baltia group fell by 8.3%. And we will continue to work on improvements going forward, in order to bring the number of accidents closer to zero,” Simanovičs continues.

In line with the core principles of LEAN, the group’s companies also continue to develop their LEAN culture and introduce new LEAN methods – including 5S, Kaizen, TPM and others – making internal processes more efficient. Particular attention was also paid last year to strengthening employees’ knowledge and skills: specialised occupational safety and first-aid training was delivered, giving employees practical skills both for identifying and preventing risks at an early stage and for responding correctly in emergency situations. Training of this kind builds a safety culture in which every employee takes an active part in maintaining a safe working environment.

Eco Baltia also places significant emphasis on gender equality. In 2025, women made up 53% of the group’s senior management. By comparison, according to data from the European Institute for Gender Equality*, women accounted for 33.3% of management positions in Latvian companies in 2026.

Involvement in initiatives of public importance

In 2025, Eco Baltia also continued to run educational and community engagement initiatives. Group company Eco Baltia vide became the official sustainability partner of EuroBasket 2025, providing waste sorting infrastructure and public awareness activities.

In the first item swap cabinet (“Lietu maiņas skapis”) set up in Sigulda, residents exchanged approximately 1,200 items over the course of a year, extending their useful life and preventing them from becoming waste. The group extended its activities from recycling into reuse by opening Lab! veikals, its first store for refurbished electrical and electronic equipment. In cooperation with Lidl Latvija, more than 160 repaired electrical appliances were donated to charity.

“For us, sustainability is not a separate project but the way in which we develop the company and assess the results of our operations. The second Sustainability Report allows us not only to show what we have achieved, but also to measure our impact more precisely against the previous period. We will continue to invest in technology, safety, energy efficiency and infrastructure in order to increase this positive impact,” says Māris Simanovičs.

The Eco Baltia group Sustainability Report has been prepared in accordance with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and the requirements of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), covering both the operations of the group’s companies and the most material impacts across the value chain. The new report continues Eco Baltia’s systematic approach to compiling and disclosing sustainability data and makes it possible to assess the group’s progress consistently in the areas of climate, the circular economy, employees, society and responsible governance. The full Eco Baltia group Sustainability Report is available HERE.

* https://eige.europa.eu/gender-statistics/dgs/indicator/wmidm_bus_bus__wmid_comp_compex

On February 17, Eco Baltia, the largest environmental resource management and recycling group in the Baltics, fully fulfilled all its obligations in relation to the bonds it had issued: it redeemed €8 million bonds on maturity and redeemed €10 million of unsecured bonds nine months ahead of schedule at 101% of their nominal value, including accrued interest. This step confirms the company’s long-term financial stability and its ability to manage capital market obligations responsibly and on time.

“The bond market enabled us to diversify our funding sources and strengthen both our financial and corporate governance standards. At the same time, it has supported the Group in taking strategic steps forward in its development and financial planning, including strengthening the company’s resilience in changing market conditions. The successful bond issues and the high investor interest demonstrated that Eco Baltia is a well-recognized and trusted issuer, forming a solid platform for the next stage of our development. We are grateful to 350 investors from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia for their trust and participation in both bond issues,” says Māris Simanovičs, Chairman of the Board of Eco Baltia.

The fulfilment of bond obligations, including the early redemption of the EUR 10 million issue, followed the group’s refinancing transaction, which was finalized in December last year. This transaction secured longer-term financing, enabling the optimization of the liability structure while maintaining predictability and financial discipline.

Santa Spūle, CFO and Member of the Board of Eco Baltia, notes: “The refinancing we completed allowed us to restructure existing financial liabilities while also securing additional financial capacity to plan cash flows more flexibly and adjust the level of available financing to actual needs. This enabled us to conclude the bond financing phase in a planned manner and meet our obligations to investors, while continuing to work on the company’s long-term strategic development.”

About Eco Baltia’s bond issues and their redemption

In February 2023, Eco Baltia issued its first unsecured bonds, worth EUR 8 million, with an interest rate of 8% over a three-year term. Investor demand for the bonds exceeded the offering by 3.5 times. They were repaid at their scheduled maturity on 17 February 2026.

In November 2023, Eco Baltia issued bonds for the second time, placing a three-year, €10 million unsecured bond issue with a 9% interest rate. Investor demand was strong once again, exceeding the offering by 1.7 times. In accordance with the terms and conditions, the company exercised its option to fully redeem these bonds early on 17 February 2026 at 101% of nominal value, also paying accrued interest (accrued up to, but excluding, the redemption date).

“We invested in Eco Baltia in 2020, and during our management period, the company expanded from operating solely in Latvia to establishing its presence in Lithuania, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Access to capital markets was an important part of our strategy, ensuring sustainable growth. Therefore, we do not rule out the possibility of returning to the capital markets with new projects,” says Vytautas Plunksnis, Partner at INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Eco Baltia.

This capital increase strengthens Metal-Plast’s balance sheet and provides the resilience needed to navigate current market conditions.

“The European plastics recycling sector is currently facing significant challenges, and this additional capital provides Metal-Plast with the necessary financial resilience to navigate this more difficult period,” says Vytautas Plunksnis, Partner at INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund and board member at Metal-Plast.

“As the largest environmental management and recycling group in the Baltics, we can provide our businesses with a stable platform and targeted investments even in volatile market conditions. This helps maintain competitiveness, improve performance, and consistently expand recycling capacity over the long term,” says Jānis Aizbalts, Head of the Environmental Sector at Eco Baltia and Chairman of the Supervisory board at Metal-Plast.

Metal-Plast modernization to increase production capacity

This year, Metal-Plast has commissioned a modern wet grinding and separation line, which will enable the recycling of old window profiles on an unprecedented scale. With its help, it is expected to increase production capacity by 7,000 tons per year. The technology enables efficient removal of contaminants (including glass, metals and rubber), improves PVC material purity and increases the recovery of high-value PVC from the same amount of input material.

“Through the Recobud joint venture with Saint-Gobain and PreZero, we are enabling industrial-scale processing of post-consumer PVC windows, materially strengthening our capacity and cost structure. This is a structural step-change for the business, embedding ESG directly into our operating model while creating scalable, long-term value for both customers and investors.” said Tomasz Rycak, CEO of Metal-Plast.

About Eco Baltia

The Eco Baltia group is the largest environmental and waste management group in the Baltics, providing the full-cycle waste management solutions from waste collection and sorting to secondary raw material logistics, wholesale and raw material processing as well as PET, PE/PP and PVC plastics recycling.

The Eco Baltia group concluded 2024 with its highest ever consolidated turnover, reaching 262 million euros — a 20% increase compared to 2023.

The group’s companies in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Czech Republic have more than 2,600 employees. The largest of the companies the group owns are Eco Baltia vide, Latvijas Zaļais punkts, Nordic Plast, Oil Recovery, and ITERUM in Latvia, Metal-Plast in Poland, TESIL Fibres in Czech Republic, and Ecoservice in Lithuania. 

The shareholders of Eco Baltia are the INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund (52.81%), the European Bank for the Reconstruction and Development (30.51%) and Māris Simanovičs (15.93% through SIA Enrial Holdings and 0.75% through Penvi Investment Ltd).

 About the INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund

With a fund size of EUR 165 million, the INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund is one of the leading private equity funds in the Baltics. Its anchor investor is the European Investment Fund (EIF), which is a part of the European Investment Bank and committed EUR 30 million with the support of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (a key element of the Investment Plan for Europe, or the Junker Plan) while also allocating resources from the Baltic Innovation Fund (a “fund of funds” initiative developed in cooperation with the governments of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia,  to increase capital investment in high-growth potential small and medium-sized enterprises in the Baltics). The fund is managed by INVL Asset Management, the leading Baltic alternative asset manager, which is a part of the Invalda INVL Group with over 30 years of experience. The group’s companies manage or have under supervision more than EUR 2 billion in assets across various investment strategies, including private equity, forests and agricultural land, renewable energy, real estate, and private debt. Additionally, the group provides family office services in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, manages pension funds in Latvia, and invests in global third-party funds.

About “Metal-Plast”:

Metal-Plast is a Poland-based company that is market leader in recycling rigid PVC material—primarily window and door profiles—since 1993. The company cooperates with more than 700 window and door manufacturers and is capable of recycling approximately 30,000 tons of material per year, producing high-quality recycled PVC raw materials.