Three major local players, GEK-Terna, Mytilineos and ElvalHalcor, a member of the Viohalko group, as well as a fourth, the Copelouzos group, joined by Beijing Guohua, a wholly owned subsidiary of China’s Shenhua, have – as was anticipated – all submitted first-round expressions of interest for the main power utility PPC’s sale of bailout-required sale of lignite mines and power stations. Two Czech firms, EPH (ENERGETICKÝ Α PRŮMYSLOVÝ HOLDING) and Indoverse Coal Investments Limited, also emerged as surprise participants. The deadline for expressions of interest expired yesterday afternoon.

PPC needs to disinvest power stations and mines units representing 40 percent of the utility’s overall lignite capacity.

The list of first-round bidders could be revised if partnerships are established or entrants fail to meet criteria enabling qualification for binding bids in the second round. The PPC board will decide on the qualifiers.

Finalized investment schemes will need to be officially declared by the end of July. A September deadline is expected to be set for binding bids.

It is not yet known if any of the sale’s early participants intend to submit binding second-round bids. They are expected to decide after examining PPC’s financial, technical and legal information to be made available to first-round participants through a data room. Investors are not expected to decide any sooner than next month.

The sale price to be demanded by PPC will be a crucial factor for investors. Though definitely interested in acquiring lignite-fired power stations and mines as a means of  controlling their cost of electricity sold, participating suppliers are troubled by the rising production cost of solid fuel-based power generation, a development prompted by EU climate change policies.