Enel CEO in Romania proposed for PPC’s new chief

Georgios Stassis, who currently serves as CEO and country manager for Italian energy company Enel in Romania, has been put forward for appointment as new CEO of Greece’s ailing majority state-owned Public Power Corporation (PPC), the Greek media has reported.

Stassis, who had been with the Enel Group since 2007, would replace Manolis Panagiotakis, who stepped down as PPC’s CEO after the new Greek government took office earlier in July. The appointment of Stassis is to be approved by PPC’s shareholder assembly.

Prior to joining the Enel Group, Stassis was executive director of strategic projects & procurement and a member of the executive/management committee of Tellas Telecom, the biggest alternative telecom operator in Greece.

Stassis is affiliated with a number of non-profit organizations, including as a board member of several renewable energy institutions and associations in the Balkans and the Middle East.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and master’s degrees in construction management from Kingston University in the UK.

According to unconfirmed reports, Enel is looking to sell parts or all of its assets in Romania.

Tough job ahead

At the helm of PPC, whose Greek acronym is DEI, Stassis would oversee the company’s restructuring, planned to include the sale of a minority stake in the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator (HEDNO).

The new government’s rescue plan for PPC also envisages slashing the 16,000-strong workforce by 2,000 under a voluntary exit scheme.

The rescue plan involves an electricity tariff increase and scrapping NOME auctions, through which PPC has been selling electricity generated by its lignite and hydropower plants to competitors at below-cost prices over the past three years, in a bid to break up PPC’s market dominance.

PPC reported a EUR 542 million loss in 2018, driven by high CO2 emission charges and NOME net impact. The bottom line was also hurt by lower turnover, which decreased by EUR 201.8 million, or 4.1%, due to decreased revenues from electricity sales, which slumped by EUR 335.4 million, or 7.3%, as a result of market share loss and the reduction in domestic electricity demand.