PPC to acquire EDS in FYROM

The purchase agreement is expected to be signed today in Skopje by PPC's chairman and CEO Manolis Panagiotakis and the owner of EDS and vice-president of the government Angusev Litchi.

EDS was founded in 2012 and has subsidiaries in Serbia, Slovakia and Kossovo. It is a member of the Hungarian Electricity Energy Exchange and has operating licenses in Serbia, Kosovo, Croatia, Bulgaria and Hungary. It has recently obtained a license to operate in the Greek electricity market. PPC also recently set up subsidiaries in Bulgaria and Albania.

PPC will pay 4.8 million euros for the purchase. It is the first successful effort of PPC to expand in the energy market of the region. PPC officials said EDS could become the vehicle to penetrate the Balkan market and to seek opportunities in the cross-border electricity energy market. They also noted that PPC's expansion in and out Greece was an one-way road to compensate for the losses suffered from losing market share in the domestic market. EDS has a market share of more than 60 pct in FYROM.