Investors considering the main power utility PPC’s bailout-required sale of lignite units were granted a last-minute deadline extension for their binding bids yesterday afternoon, a development that resets the date for February 6 instead of today.

In the lead-up, the sale’s prospects were seen as unfavorable by the government and state-controlled PPC, while the country’s lender representatives, scheduled to meet tomorrow with Greek energy minister Giorgos Stathakis, have also added to this negativity.

Participants who were rumored, as late as yesterday, to be preparing to submit competitive bids, eventually made it clear they would not take part under the disinvestment’s current conditions, seen as unfavorable.

Judging by the developments, Greece’s lender representatives appear to have prepared for alternative solutions, as part of a wider effort to make the Greek electricity market more competitive, in the event of a debacle of the current sale effort. If so, the sale of hydropower facilities, a taboo subject dreaded by the government, could end up entering the picture.