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Central Europe
February 9, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 13
thored by Hamar and Elios employee Ivett Mancz.
Olaf adds that the arrangements in 17 tenders may constitute fiscal fraud under Hungarian
law, but recommends that Hungarian authorities investigate possible organised crime in the matter. Under EU rules it is up to member states to investigate and prosecute abuses reported
by Olaf.
PKN Orlen raises stake in Unipetrol to nearly 95%
bne IntelliNews
PKN Orlen, the state-owned Polish oil group, will increase its stake in the Czech petrochemical group Unipetrol to nearly 95% following its offer to shareholders.
Orlen, which bought a 63% stake in Unipetrol from the Czech state in 2005, won acceptances from shareholders holding 31.5% of shares during its CZK380 per share offer that finished on January 30. These acceptances included the 20% stake owned by the second largest shareholder, Slova- kia’s J&T Financial Group.
Orlen’s share offer will be settled by February 23. Unipetrol shares closed at CZK375 on February 7. Orlen now intends to squeeze out the remaining shareholders and delist the company, in a blow to the moribund Prague Stock Exchange. Unipetrol was the sixth most traded stock on the exchange last year, and of primary listings, it was the fourth largest by market capitalisation.
Taking its stake in Unipetrol to 90% would cost PKN Orlen PLN3.05bn (€720mn), while scooping
Despite calls by opposition parties, the government has not made the Olaf report public. Corruption and cronyism are serious concerns
for Hungary as illustrated by the difficulties experienced by business owners who have fallen out of favor with the government, and the failure to investigate corruption by high-level government officials, according to the latest report of the Heritage Foundation.
up all the shares of the Czech company will put the price tag at PLN4.2bn, PKN Orlen said when it launched the offer, which values Unipetrol at nearly CZK69bn.
Taking full ownership of Unipetrol will enable Orlen to benefit more from the turnaround in the group’s performance. Last year Unipetrol raised net profits by 9% to CZK8.7bn on revenue up 39% year-on-year to CZK122.5bn.
“The current ownership structure prevents
PKN Orlen from reaping the full benefits of the initiatives we have put in motion in the Czech Republic, including our efforts to improve the refining and sales efficiency and our investments in the petrochemical assets,” Orlen’s former CEO Wojciech Jasinskisaid in a statement at the time.
The share buyout will also remove J&T, a trouble- some activist shareholder. J&T had long been at odds with the Poles over Unipetrol’s dividend, pushing for higher payouts.