Main power utility PPC has offered an additional week of time to strategic investors examining the prospect of submitting binding bids for a 24 percent stake in IPTO, its wholly owned subsidiary. The previous deadline expires today.

The utility was prompted to provide more time to participants through to the second round of an international tender as a result of their high level of scrutinization of the sale’s terms and conditions.

According to sources, an independent evaluation of IPTO commissioned by PPC has been completed by Barclays.

Talks over the past ten days or so between France’s RTE, one of three qualifiers through to the tender’s second round, and Hydro-Quebec, a Montreal-based global powerhouse, for a possible joint bid do not seem to have produced any results. In fact, RTE will most likely not submit a binding bid at all, latest developments suggest.

On the contrary, China’s State Grid International Development and Italy’s Terna seem warmer to the prospect, as indicated by the thoroughness and deep interest shown in their second-round preparations.

Besides the 24 percent stake of IPTO being offered to strategic investors, the sale plan also includes selling 25 percent through the bourse and transferring 51 percent from PPC, the operator’s parent company, to the Greek State.