PPC’s new business plan aims to quadruple EBITDA over 3 yrs

Power utility PPC’s new business plan covering 2021 to 2023 will strive to quadruple the corporation’s EBITDA figure concerning retail activity to 466 million euros from 104 million euros in 2019 through measures focused on maintaining and rewarding a quality customer base in the low-voltage category, company officials have announced.

PPC, which has just presented its three-year business plan to over 200 analysts and investors at PPC Investor Day 2020, projects a customer base contraction from 6.1 million last September to 4.7 million over the next three years, resulting in a retail market share drop to 54 percent from 64 percent at present.

PPC will seek to control the outflow of customers switching to rival suppliers by holding on to the cream of the crop. The utility will also seek to recapture positive-rated customers who have switched to rival suppliers in recent years.

The utility wants to increase its percentage of positive-rated low-voltage customers to 58 percent in 2023 from 48 percent at present. This goal will be driven by loyalty benefits and discounts specially adjusted to consumption profiles.

The corporation also aims to increase e-billing to represent 42 percent of customers in 2023 from just 10 percent at present. However, the utility will not abandon its network of conventional retail outlets. On the contrary, the company to increase its network of 110 outlets to 150 by 2023, all revamped and equipped with high-tech equipment, including automated payment machines.

PPC will also strive to decrease its unpaid receivables from 2.7 billion euros to 2.2 billion euros by 2023, its securitization packages and tougher collection campaigns being the key tools behind this objective.