Polish refiner Orlen aims to buy controlling stake in Lotos
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
27.02.2018 13:55
Poland's biggest oil refiner, PKN Orlen, said on Tuesday it has signed a letter of intent with the state treasury to buy at least 53 percent of shares in Lotos, the country’s no. 2 refining company.
![Photo: Artur Czachowski from Poland [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://external.polskieradio.pl/files/ccd86a4c-8db3-4a7b-b2b7-82d6ac738f5c.file "Photo: Artur Czachowski from Poland [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons")
Photo: Artur Czachowski from Poland [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Both firms are state-controlled. PKN Orlen and Grupa Lotos shares jumped on the news.
The transaction will need to be approved by competition authorities, the PAP news agency reported.
Orlen said in a statement: "The aim of the transaction is to create a strong, integrated concern capable of better competing internationally [and] resistant to market fluctuations, among other things through operational and cost synergies between PKN Orlen and Grupa Lotos."
The Parkiet daily last year cited a deputy infrastructure and construction minister as saying that a merger between Orlen and Lotos was unavoidable.
The paper quoted Kazimierz Smoliński as saying that there was no other country of a size similar to Poland that had two major state-owned companies in one industry.
(pk)
Source: PAP