TAIPED, the state privatization fund, is preparing to hire an independent evaluator for the 50.1 percent sale of ELPE, a privatization whose second-round binding offers appear very likely to be submitted between late September and early October.

This sale represents one of the country’s most emblematic privatizations as ELPE is the biggest state-controlled energy company.

TAIPED announced a tender yesterday calling interested independent evaluators to submit their offers by an August 15 deadline.

The evaluator to be awarded the contract will have four weeks to put a price tag on PPC, which means the sale’s second-round qualifiers will face a deadline of no later than early October for binding offers, assuming no extensions are requested.

Switzerland’s Glencore and Dutch enterprise Vitol have qualified for the second round of ELPE’s international tender.

According to the privatization’s terms, the evaluator will either need to be an investment bank with a leading market position or a specialized consulting firm. The establishment of a consortium combining both will also be permitted, according to TAIPED’s terms.

The evaluator to be appointed will be given access to ELPE’s data room, which includes all technical and financial data necessary for the evaluation process. TAIPED will use the resulting evaluation as a measure of comparison for incoming offers.

Glencore and Vitol have already been given access to ELPE’s data room to decide on the levels of their binding offers.

Recent speculation pertaining to the emergence of a third candidate buyer, as a partner of one of the two qualifiers, appears to be groundless.