PPC subsidiary EDS in Northern Macedonia is deadweight

PPC management is concerned over the course of its subsidiary EDS in Northern Macedonia.

According to information from ot.gr the financial performance of the electricity trading and supply company is not good at all, with its trading activity creating losses. In fact, as reported by ot.gr sources, PPC management has decided to suspend the relevant activity for this year in order to limit financial consequences.

As far as the supply of electricity is concerned, it does not bring large revenues to PPC and sources note that these are considered low. Its participation in supply is also limited.

For the time being, however, the public company has not taken any decisions. However, market players tell ot.gr that scenarios of its disengagement from the specific acquisition are also being considered.

EDS has been in the PPC portfolio for three years. The case of its acquisition in the summer of 2018 by the then management of the public enterprise, following the signing of the Prespa agreement, had caused a storm of political reactions. The purchase price, which was announced, may have been low (4.8 million euros) but the parties of the then opposition had raised a number of questions, during the SYRIZA-ANEL government. These were related on the one hand to the fact that EDS belonged to the then Deputy Prime Minister in the Zaev government, Kocho Angiusev and on the other hand to the loss-making balance sheet announced by the company for the years 2017 and 2016. In addition, to the criticism leveled against the SYRIZA- ANEL government at the time, the management of PPC was also slammed, for the very bad performance of the public enterprise. It should be noted that at that time its financial results were going from bad to worse, culminating in 2019, when it reached the brink of bankruptcy.

However, the negative course of EDS was reflected in the last PPC board meeting chaired by Manolis Panagiotakis . In July 2019, it had decided to cover the negative net position of the company in Northern Macedonia. More specifically, the Board of PPC, a few hours before resigning, had approved its corporate transformation from a sole proprietorship to a public limited company and at the same time had decided to pay an amount of 1.8 million euros which would be its initial capital (in the new corporate form), covering the negative position of 1.6 million euros.

The then management of PPC, was led to this decision as one of the cooperating banks of EDS in North Macedonia, NLB, threatened the termination of the credit line of 2.5 million euros if the electricity supply and trading company did not close the “black” hole, which had existed since 2017. At that time it was at 1.7 million euros. In fact, the same sources want the bank to have demanded at least 1.6 million euros to close the negative position of EDS.