Agrofert plays a waiting game with PKN Orlen

"We will sue Orlen to the court of arbitration only when all other options to solve the problem fail," said the Agrofert president, Andrej Babis, yesterday. According to an agreement signed by the two c ompanies in April last year, Orlen was to sell five chemical companies belonging to the Czech Unipetrol group to Agrofert. The price fixed at the time was EUR103 million, while currently the companies are worth two or three times more. Agrofert's president stated, however, that the original price from the agreement was still binding. "PKN has not made any steps to implement the terms of the agreement. The deadline for payment of the contractual penalty amounting to EUR77 million expired on September 9. The Polish company did not pay and stated in a letter sent to us that our claims are unjustified," revealed Babis. He nevertheless declared that his company is still waiting for Orlen's proposals. "I have the impression that this case is the result of some kind of situation in Poland. I hope that after the election Orlen will finally present its specific proposals," he added. (Parkiet, p. 5; Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 9) E.B.