Public Power Corporation (PPC) on Friday reported a significant increase in its 2016 profits (from losses in 2015) and said its liquidity problem was at its height and was expected to be improved shortly. PPC also said the corporation was making preparations to adjust to the new environment created by structural measures (selling of electricity production units) demanded by the country’s creditors.
PPC said its pre-tax earnings totaled 169.1 million euros in 2016 from a loss of 106.6 million in 2015, while excluding one-off impact pre-tax earnings totaled 255.2 million euros. EBITDA amounted to 1.063 billion euros up 257 million from 2015 reflecting lower bad debt provisions (by 512 million). Turnover fell by 478 million euros to 5.25 billion euros as PPC due to a loss of market share, lower prices and a rising phenomenon of electricity theft. Ιnvestments rose to 867 million euros in 2016 from 753 in 2015 and net debt fell by 262 million euros to 4.5 billion.
Manolis Panagiotakis, chairman and CEO, commenting on the results stressed the importance of rising profitability, lower debt and higher investments and added that the most significant problem for PPC was a reduced cash liquidity and noted that other problems -needed to be reexamined- were covering deficits in renewable energy sources account and an energy crisis in December-January which burdened the corporation by at least 70 million euros. He noted that a significant number of customers avoid paying their debts to PPC and announced that the corporation will hire specialized companies in its effort to significantly improve collection of debt. Panagiotakis said PPC was expecting a significant improvement in revenue from the sale of a 49 pct of ADMIE.
He said that PPC was preparing a plan to set up the first subsidiary company of PPC customers to be offered in the market and was working systematically to draft a strategic plan in the framework of new conditions expected in the market to meet a goal for a smaller PPC (in the electricity market) but stronger and larger through a diversification in new product and services and expanding in ew markets.
PPC’s board plans to skip dividend payment for 2016.
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