HEDNO sale bids to be delayed by 2 months, for September

The privatization plan for distribution network operator DEDDIE/HEDNO, whose sale is offering investors a 49 percent stake, is expected to be delayed by approximately two months as a result of the need for greater preparation time prompted by the large buyer turnout.

The operator’s parent company, PPC, the power utility, will now aim for a binding-bids deadline and finalization of the sale around September.

According to the sale’s original schedule, candidates were set a July deadline for binding bids.

Nine funds have qualified for the second, and final, round. They could be joined by energy market operators ahead of their binding bids.

PPC chief executive Giorgos Stassis plans to table the distribution network operator’s privatization at the parent company’s next board meeting.

Stassis will, yet again, inform the PPC board on the level of suitability of second-round qualifiers in terms of their energy infrastructure track records and, even more crucially, ability to meet the demands of DEDDIE/HEDNO’s investment plan, requiring 3 billion euros until 2028.

Separate talks are currently being held by the seller with representatives of each of the nine funds, in the process of signing confidentiality agreements for access to the operator’s virtual data room, containing technical and financial data.