Power utility PPC, currently conducting due diligence for its planned acquisition of Italian energy group ENEL’s Romanian subsidiary ENEL Romania, has completed about 70 percent of the procedure, without issues, and could strike a deal within the next two to four weeks.

If the two sides do reach an agreement, PPC will fully acquire the Italian group’s Romanian subsidiary, a big move facilitating the Greek utility’s plan for expansion into the Balkan energy market with Romania, the region’s fastest growing economy, as a base.

An agreement between PPC and ENEL Romania would offer the former full control of ENEL Romania’s assets, regardless of the subsidiary’s varying stakes in network, supply and RES projects, ranging from 51 to 100 percent. ENEL holds the managerial rights to all its ventures in Romania, also included in the sale.

PPC officials have ruled out any chance of also expressing interest in ENEL’s interests in the Greek market. Asset prices in the Greek market greatly exceed those in Balkan markets, they explained.

An ENEL Romania deal would offer PPC three million customers in Romania as an addition to the company’s five million existing customers in Greece.

It would also offer PPC access to rich natural gas deposits in the Black Sea, while a Romanian venture would be supplied favorably-priced LNG arriving at Greek ports – currently via the Revythoussa islet terminal just off Athens and, in the near future, through a prospective FSRU at Alexandroupoli, northeastern Greece.