New gov’t to decide on PPC’s future plans
A number of new plans are being considered for the Public Power Corporation’s (PPC) further restructuring, including the entry of a strategic investor, a further stake sale and the entry of private capital in new projects and areas of activities. These new scenarios are being looked at concurrently with the drafting of the firm’s operational plan, aimed at dealing with the crisis the energy company has been struggling through in recent years, on the one hand, and boosting competitiveness on the other. Until about a year ago, both the government and PPC administrations regarded such plans as daring and somewhat inapplicable, but the emergence of a couple of factors has helped turn them into realistic options. One such factor has been the stagnancy the company has been facing in recent months and the unquestionable need for restructuring, which even made the powerful GENOP-DEH trade union waver in its insistence that the state retaining control of a 51 percent stake. Another second factor could be the domestic energy market’s latest dynamic, following the intense interest shown by certain investors in power generation. The entire energy market environment has now changed altogether, and those players involved in the market seem to have realized that PPC’s restructuring is a one-way option. Of course, PPC’s partnership with Spain’s Iberdrola for power generation from renewable energy sources and its recent deal with cement producer AGET-Iraklis for the construction of a new coal power plant in Aliveri, Evia, are seen as heralding in a new business era for Greece’s largest power producer. Decisions on the above plans are to be made by the new government to be elected on September 16. An advantage to be enjoyed and capitalized on by that government would be that the idea of daring politicians has now matured in the minds of PPC’s employees and inner structure.
