Attention, all you Lotos eaters!
Fuelled by a string of positive results, a bull market on the bourse and a generally improving economic climate, Grupa Lotos is gearing up to go public.
Although it's still early doors in terms of putting an exact date on when the IPO will happen, company spokesperson Marcin Zachowicz cites March 2005 as its most likely timing. Just how much of the company will be up for grabs, though, is still to be determined by the state, but it seems most likely that 60 percent will go under the hammer.
And while both Zachowicz and Krzysztof Mering, a spokesperson for Nafta Polska, believe it's too soon to put a figure on the amount expected to be raised through the floor (BRE Corporate Finance, the adviser on the IPO is still assessing the deal's worth), a figure of zł.700 million has been bandied about in the press.
According to Zachowicz, the funds raised will be used primarily to achieve two aims, with the first being the "complex technical development of the Gdańsk refinery."
Estimated to cost around zł.1.8 billion ($500 million), the plant upgrade will take about three years to complete and should boost petroleum production there from 4.5 million tonnes a year to 6 million tonnes, as well as enabling the conversion of residue oil into electricity, hydrogen and fuels.
The firm's second objective is the expansion of its petrol station network. Currently controlling around six to seven percent of the market, Lotos hopes to pump this figure up to 10 percent through a combination of acquisitions and newbuilds that should see its presence across the country rise from 329 garages to over 500 by the end of next year.
However, one problem highlighted by Paweł Olechnowicz, Lotos's president, that dogs the company in this field is that of branding.
"We have three different visual identi-fications," Zachowicz says, adding that "unifying units under one brand [will] take time."
Commanding around 20 percent of the domestic fuels market and a similar share of the country's engine oils market, Grupa Lotos, which will officially see extraction firm Petrobaltic and three refineries in southern Poland enter its fold next year, should prove to be an attractive investment when it hits the floor.
Certainly the firm, which notched up a Q1 net profit of zł.92 million following last year's record high profit of zł.257 million (up from zł.102 million in 2002), has aroused interest from Lukoil, which has expressed an interest in snapping up 50 percent of the company's stock.
However, Mering was quick to quash rumors regarding the Russian giant having entered into talks with Nafta Polska about a possible purchase. Lukoil itself declined to comment.
Although it's still early doors in terms of putting an exact date on when the IPO will happen, company spokesperson Marcin Zachowicz cites March 2005 as its most likely timing. Just how much of the company will be up for grabs, though, is still to be determined by the state, but it seems most likely that 60 percent will go under the hammer.
And while both Zachowicz and Krzysztof Mering, a spokesperson for Nafta Polska, believe it's too soon to put a figure on the amount expected to be raised through the floor (BRE Corporate Finance, the adviser on the IPO is still assessing the deal's worth), a figure of zł.700 million has been bandied about in the press.
According to Zachowicz, the funds raised will be used primarily to achieve two aims, with the first being the "complex technical development of the Gdańsk refinery."
Estimated to cost around zł.1.8 billion ($500 million), the plant upgrade will take about three years to complete and should boost petroleum production there from 4.5 million tonnes a year to 6 million tonnes, as well as enabling the conversion of residue oil into electricity, hydrogen and fuels.
The firm's second objective is the expansion of its petrol station network. Currently controlling around six to seven percent of the market, Lotos hopes to pump this figure up to 10 percent through a combination of acquisitions and newbuilds that should see its presence across the country rise from 329 garages to over 500 by the end of next year.
However, one problem highlighted by Paweł Olechnowicz, Lotos's president, that dogs the company in this field is that of branding.
"We have three different visual identi-fications," Zachowicz says, adding that "unifying units under one brand [will] take time."
Commanding around 20 percent of the domestic fuels market and a similar share of the country's engine oils market, Grupa Lotos, which will officially see extraction firm Petrobaltic and three refineries in southern Poland enter its fold next year, should prove to be an attractive investment when it hits the floor.
Certainly the firm, which notched up a Q1 net profit of zł.92 million following last year's record high profit of zł.257 million (up from zł.102 million in 2002), has aroused interest from Lukoil, which has expressed an interest in snapping up 50 percent of the company's stock.
However, Mering was quick to quash rumors regarding the Russian giant having entered into talks with Nafta Polska about a possible purchase. Lukoil itself declined to comment.
