Note 21 - Commitments and Contingencies

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2021

Notes to Financial Statements

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Text Block]

NOTE 21 — COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Geothermal resources

The Company, through its project subsidiaries in the United States and other foreign locations, controls certain rights to geothermal fluids through certain leases with the BLM or through private leases. Royalties on the utilization of the geothermal resources are computed and paid to the lessors as defined in the respective agreements. Royalty expense under the geothermal resource agreements were $25.2 million, $20.8 million and $21.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Letters of credit

In the ordinary course of business with customers, vendors, and lenders, the Company is contingently liable for performance under letters of credit totaling $185.0 million at December 31, 2021. Management does not expect any material losses to result from these letters of credit because performance is not expected to be required.

Purchase commitments

The Company purchases raw materials for inventories, construction-in-process and services from a variety of vendors. During the normal course of business, in order to manage manufacturing lead times and help assure adequate supply, the Company enters into agreements with contract manufacturers and suppliers that either allow them to procure goods and services based upon specifications defined by the Company, or that establish parameters defining the Company’s requirements. At December 31, 2021, total obligations related to such supplier agreements were approximately $249.2 million (out of which approximately $152.8 million relate to construction-in-process). All such obligations are payable in 2022.

Grants and royalties

The Company, through Ormat Systems, had historically, through December 31, 2003, requested and received grants for research and development from the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Israeli Government. Ormat Systems is required to pay royalties to the Israeli Government at a rate of 3.5% to 5.0% of the revenues derived from products and services developed using these grants. No royalties were paid for the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019. The Company is not liable for royalties if the Company does not sell such products and services. Such royalties are capped at the amount of the grants received plus interest at LIBOR. The cap at December 31, 2021 and 2020, amounted to $2.2 million and $2.1 million, respectively, of which approximately $1.2 million and $1.1 million, represents interest based on the LIBOR rate as defined above, for 2021 and 2020, respectively.

Lease commitments

The Company's lease commitments are detailed under Note 22, Leases to the consolidated financial statements.

Contingencies

● On May 21, 2018, a motion to certify a class action was filed in Tel Aviv District Court against Ormat Technologies, Inc. and 11 officers and directors.  The alleged class is defined as "All persons who purchased Ormat shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange between August 3, 2017 and May 13, 2018". The motion alleges that the Company and other respondents violated  Sections 31(a)(1) and 38C of the Israeli Securities Law, and Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, because they allegedly: (1) misled investors by stating in the Company's financial statements that it maintains effective internal controls over its accounting policies and procedures, even though  the Company's internal controls had material weaknesses which led to erroneous accounting in its 2017 unaudited quarterly reports that had to be restated, including adjustments to the Company’s net income and shareholders’ equity; and (2) failed to issue an immediate report in Israel until May 16, 2018, analogous to the report that was released in the United States on May 11, 2018 stating, inter alia, that the errors in its financial reports affected its balance sheet and would be remedied in its 2017 Annual Report. Agreed motions were filed from time to time with, and granted by, the Tel Aviv District Court to stay the proceedings in Israel in light of the United States case (Mac Costas). On June 30, 2020,  pursuant to the execution and submission of a settlement agreement to the United States court for approval, which resolves the matters raised with respect to the entire class of shareholders (whether traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange or U.S. stock exchange), the Company filed a motion informing the Tel Aviv court of the settlement.  On March 3, 2021, the Tel Aviv District Court approved the parties’ joint motion for withdrawal and dismissal of the plaintiff’s July 2, 2020 motion for an Anti-Suit Injunction and issued an order to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange members executing the settlement.  The final settlement was concluded with the payment of an immaterial amount by the Company. 

● On June 11, 2018, a putative class action filed by Mac Costas on behalf of alleged shareholders that purchased or acquired the Company's ordinary shares between August 8, 2017 and May 15, 2018 was commenced in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada against the Company and its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, which was subsequently amended by a consolidated complaint filed by lead plaintiff Phoenix Insurance in May 13, 2019.  The complaint asserts claim against all defendants pursuant to Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act, as amended, and Rule 10b-5 thereunder and against its officers pursuant to Section 20(a) of the Exchange Act.  The complaint alleges that the Company's Form 10-K for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2017, and Form 10-Qs for each of the quarters in the nine months ended September 30, 2017 contained material misstatements or omissions, among other things, with respect to the Company’s tax provisions and the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting, and that, as a result of such alleged misstatements and omissions, the plaintiffs suffered damages. On December 6, 2019 the Company’s motion to dismiss was denied by the court. On March 23, 2020, pursuant to out of court mediation, a term sheet for a proposed settlement of the action without admission of liability or wrongdoing, was signed between the parties and on June 10, 2020, a joint stipulation and motion for preliminary approval of the comprehensive executed settlement documentation was filed for the court for approval.  On January 21, 2021, the Court issued its Order and Final Judgement certifying the Class, approving the method of notification of the settlement pursued, and approving the final settlement and proposed Plan of Allocation as well as the plaintiff's attorneys and plaintiff’s awards. The final settlement was concluded with an immaterial amount for the Company.

● On September 11, 2018, the Klein derivative action (Klein Action) was filed against the Company, our board and its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, and on October 22, 2018, the Matthew derivative action (Matthew Action) was filed against the Company, certain named present and former board members (Barniv, Beck, Boehm, Clark, Falk, Freeland, Granot, Joyal, Nishigori, Sharir, Stern and Wong) in the United States District Court, District of Nevada.  The Klein complaint asserts four derivative causes of action generally arising from Ormat's restatement of its financial statements: (i) the individual defendants allegedly breached their fiduciary duties by allowing the Company to improperly report its financials; (ii) the individual defendants allegedly were unjustly enriched by being compensated while breaching their fiduciary duties; (iii) the individual defendants allegedly committed corporate waste in paying officers and directors and by incurring legal costs and potential liability; and (iv) the director defendants allegedly breached Section 14(a) of the Exchange Act in connection with the issuance of the 2018 proxy. The Matthew complaint similarly alleges derivatively a breach of fiduciary duties, abuse of control, gross mismanagement, and corporate waste by the named directors. On January 24, 2019, the Nevada Court entered an order consolidating the Klein Action and Matthew Action. On July 10, 2020, a comprehensive settlement package and derivative stipulation of settlement was submitted to the court, and on October 12, 2020, Plaintiff filed an unopposed motion to the Nevada Court requesting preliminary approval of the corporate governance enhancement settlement.  On March 29, 2021, the Nevada Court issued its final order and judgement resolving all actions to the claim, dismissing them with prejudice, and approving the final settlement.  The sum the Company will bear for implementation of the settlement is not material.

● On March 29, 2016, a former local sales representative in Chile, Aquavant, S.A., filed a claim on the basis of unjust enrichment against Ormat’s subsidiaries in the 27th Civil Court of Santiago, Chile. The claim requests that the court order Ormat to pay Aquavant $4.6 million in connection with its activities in Chile, including the EPC contract for the Cerro Pabellon project and various geothermal concessions, plus 3.75% of Ormat geothermal products sales in Chile over the next 10 years. Pursuant to various motions submitted by the defendants and the plaintiffs to various courts, including the Court of Appeals, the case was removed from the original court and then refiled before the 11th Civil Court of Santiago. On April 16, 2020, the 11th Civil Court of Santiago issued its order rejecting Plaintiff's principal claim of unjust enrichment, as an improper cause of action, rejecting Plaintiff's secondary claim for declaratory judgment, which the Court associates with the principal claim of unjust enrichment and not relating to a number of defenses raised by the Company. In May 2020, each of the parties filed separately to the court of appeals, which are pending.  On October 19, 2020, the Court of Appeals dismissed all ancillary appeals on procedural issues filed by Aquavant as well as two ancillary appeals on procedural issues filed by the Company. The Company considers it has strong legal defenses and the probability of the claimant receiving an award is low. The potential amount that the Company may bear in this context cannot be reasonably estimated at this time.

● On March 3, 2021, a claim and motion to certify a class action was filed in the Tel Aviv District Court (Economic Division) on behalf of Avishai Shmuel Mano against Ormat Technologies Inc. and 23 additional named respondents, who include existing and former directors and officers of the Company.  On July 1, 2021, the court accepted plaintiff's motion to withdraw the claim against the named foreign respondents, retaining only the claim against the Company and the named present and former directors and officers who are domiciled in Israel. The claim seeks economic damages of approximately $100 million purportedly caused to shareholders by defendants’ alleged inaccurate reporting and provision of misleading information to the public in breach of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, based on claims made in a report published by short-seller Hindenburg Research on March 1, 2021. The Company timely filed its response on February 2, 2022. The Company considers it has strong legal defenses and the probability of the claimant receiving an award is low. The potential amount that the Company may bear in this context cannot be reasonably estimated at this time.

● On September 14, 2021, an arbitration was filed on behalf of Kipreos before CAM Santiago, an electrical works subcontractor who had been hired to perform certain works at the Cerro Pabellon III Project for the recovery of alleged unpaid amounts in the approximate sum of $5.2 million. Ormat’s subsidiary timely responded with a counterclaim of approximately the same amount for recovery of damages and losses due to the subcontractor’s negligent performance under its terminated contract. The former subcontractor also initiated ancillary interim proceedings in the civil courts of Santiago attempting to recover three unpaid invoices and to obtain a seizure order, pursuant to which the lower court recently issued a preliminary, administrative ruling in favor of the plaintiff regarding invoices valued approximately $570,000, subject to fulfillment of bonding requirements. The Company considers it has strong legal defenses against the arbitral claims and the probability of the claimant receiving a final award is low.

In addition, from time to time, the Company is named as a party to various other lawsuits, claims and other legal and regulatory proceedings that arise in the ordinary course of the Company's business. These actions typically seek, among other things, compensation for alleged personal injury, breach of contract, property damage, punitive damages, civil penalties or other losses, or injunctive or declaratory relief. With respect to such lawsuits, claims and proceedings, the Company accrues reserves when a loss is probable, and the amount of such loss can be reasonably estimated. It is the opinion of the Company’s management that the outcome of these proceedings, individually and collectively, will not be material to the Company’s consolidated financial statements as a whole.

Other matters

On March 2, 2021, the Company's board of directors established a Special Committee of independent directors to investigate, among other things, certain claims made in a report published by a short seller regarding the Company’s compliance with anti-corruption laws. The Special Committee is working with outside legal counsel to investigate the claims made. All members of the Special Committee are “independent” in accordance with the Company's Corporate Governance Guidelines, the NYSE listing standards and SEC rules applicable to board of directors in general. The Company is also providing information as requested by the SEC and Department of Justice ("DOJ") related to the claims.