PPC, Greece’s largest electricity utility, opened the order book on Monday for its share capital increase, becoming one of the first major Greek issuers to make use of the European Union’s new “EU Follow-on Prospectus” regime, a streamlined disclosure framework aimed at established listed companies returning to capital markets for fresh funding.
The move by PPC’s management under Chief Executive Georgios Stassis highlights how European regulators are attempting to reduce the compliance burden for repeat issuers without weakening investor safeguards, as companies seek faster access to capital for growth and investment plans.
The EU Follow-on Prospectus was introduced to simplify fundraising procedures for companies with an established market presence. Unlike traditional prospectuses used in initial public offerings or first-time listings, the framework assumes investors are already familiar with the issuer through years of public disclosures, financial reporting and regulatory filings.
PPC, whose shares have traded on the Athens Stock Exchange for decades, comfortably meets the regime’s central eligibility requirement: securities must have been listed on a regulated market, or an SME growth market, for at least 18 consecutive months before a new public offering or admission of additional shares.
The framework differs from disclosure exemptions used in corporate restructurings such as mergers, spin-offs or share exchanges under the EU Prospectus Regulation. The EU Follow-on Prospectus does not exempt companies from issuing a prospectus altogether. Instead, it creates a lighter version of the standard document while retaining full regulatory oversight.
For investors, this distinction is significant. Approval by Greece’s capital markets regulator does not amount to an endorsement of the transaction, a judgment on the company’s valuation or an assessment of the financial merits of the capital increase itself.
Rather, the regulator’s role is to verify that the prospectus satisfies disclosure standards under the EU’s updated regulatory framework and provides sufficient information for investors to make informed decisions.
Regulators also assess whether the issuer qualifies for the follow-on regime by examining trading history and compliance with ongoing disclosure obligations, including transparency requirements and market abuse rules.
The system was introduced partly because previous simplified prospectus models for secondary share offerings were widely viewed as offering limited practical relief, remaining too close in scope and complexity to full prospectuses.
The new framework is built on a different premise: that established issuers entering the market again should not be treated as unknown entities. Instead, the prospectus incorporates information already available to investors-including financial statements, market announcements and prior disclosures-reflecting the assumption that market knowledge already exists rather than starting from scratch.
