Unpaid bills take toll on PPC profits
Greece’s Public Power Corporation (PPC) saw its profits dip in the third quarter of the year due to the growing volume of unpaid bills, though it remained in the black over the nine-month period from January to September.
According to estimates published on Thursday, PPC expects unpaid bills in the nine-month period from low-voltage customers to climb to 603 million euros from 195.3 million euros in the same period in 2014. Debts from high-voltage customers are expected to come to 64.6 million euros in January-September, from 63.6 million euros in the same period last year.
PPC CEO Manolis Panayiotakis said that the country’s biggest electricity provider plans to crack down on debtors, including state and government agencies. He expressed “reserved optimism” over the fact that of the company’s 2.1 million low-voltage customers, 11.9 percent are responsible for 45 percent of the debt.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the first nine months of this year dropped 2.6 percent by 21 million euros compared with 2014, while pre-tax profits came to 63.3 million euros from 116.2 last year and after-tax to 5.9 million euros from 121.8 million euros in the first nine months of 2014.
