Announcement
Commenting on an electronic press article written by an executive of a private company active in the electricity market and in order to accurately inform the investor community, PPC would like to emphasize that the specific article, either by comparing financials that are not directly comparable since they have a different calculation approach or by presenting part of total figures, ends up at false conclusions. Specifically:
· The comment “High increase of Personnel payroll in 2014” is totally inaccurate, since for the years 2010-2013, payroll cost of personnel shown by the author of the article in a relevant table does not include payroll cost related to lignite extraction, which as of 2014 and onwards is included in payroll cost of personnel. A relevant note has been made in 2014 financial statements, which are available of PPC’s website. Consequently if one compares figures of similar nature, total payroll cost of personnel not only increased in 2014 compared to 2013, but on the contrary posted a reduction of € 26 m, whereas compared to 2010 it marked a reduction of € 331 m. In 2015, there was a further decline of total payroll cost of personnel by € 34 m. It is noted that total payroll cost of 2015 declined by € 733 m compared to the payroll of 2009, while cumulatively savings reached approximately € 3.5 bln. for the aforementioned period.
· In addition, the press article presents the long term debt increase as a negative development overlooking the fact that in 2014, the Company actually proceeded to the refinancing of short term debt, thus achieving to extend its debt maturities. Total net debt of the Company in 2014 increased by € 468 m (and not by € 1,838 m. as suggested by the figures included in the accompanying table of the article), while in 2015 it was reduced by € 203 m.
Athens, October 19, 2016