The Lithuanian Court of Appeal ruled on Friday the Vilnius authorities reasonably eliminated Vilniaus Nacionalinis Stadionas (VNS), another bidder in the tender, thus, rejecting the latter's appeal and upholding the April ruling of Vilnius Regional Court.
The court also lifted the existing interim measures.
VNS had asked the court to abolish the Vilnius authorities' decision to reject its preliminary offer and not to invite it to take part in next procedures, and wanted the court to order the authorities to deem the company as meeting the requirements and make it assess its offer.
In late February, the Vilnius City Council backed the 79.9-million-euro deal with Axis Industries and then planned to sign the contract in a month but the interim measures later introduced by the court prevented them from signing the contract.
The tender VNS was disqualified from the concession process by the tender commission for the second time in late January due to insufficient qualification and allegedly provided false information.
According to the Vilnius authorities, the companies failed to provide evidence over more than two months on whether the company or its partners were capable of ensuring successful implementation of the project, and by doing that it was misleading the tender commission and experts.
Under the plan, the state will invest 36.5 million euros into the stadium project, EU support will amount to 33.5 million euros, and the Vilnius municipality will invest 2.96 million euros.
Attempts to build an international-standard stadium in the capital's Seskine area have been made since 1987. The latest attempt to resume its construction was made in 2008 but had to be halted as the funding was discontinued.