The main power utility PPC plans to hold a general shareholders’ meeting on April 4 to formalize the split from the corporation of lignite units to be included in a bailout-required sale package.

The staging of this meeting will require previous ratification of a related draft bill, scheduled for late March. If the legislative procedure is delayed then the date of the PPC meeting will need to be revised accordingly. The sale procedure is scheduled to be launched in June.

Two power stations at Megalopooli, Meliti I, as well as a licence for the prospective Meliti II facility have been included in PPC’s lignite asset  disinvestment plan.

The schedule is tight but still in line with a plan mapped out by the energy ministry. In an interview published on Saturday by business weekly Kefalaio, energy minister Giorgos Stathakis noted that a first stage of public consultation involving local communities and authorities will be completed within the next two weeks, which will enable the ministry to submit a draft bill to parliament and then stage a follow-up public consultation procedure as a lead-up to the bill’s ratification.

The draft bill will be comprised of three sections, the minister informed. The first will offer a description of the split process, the second will detail the sale procedure of lignite units included in the disinvestment package, and the third section will focus on labour matters, or maintainance of jobs in the short and medium terms, according to the minister.

PPC’s chief executive Manolis Panagiotakis has described the schedule’s maintenance as “difficult but feasible”.