Grupa Lotos IPO not likely before December

Grupa Lotos (GL), the second largest national oil company, is preparing for its IPO. According to Nafta Polska, the state agency which is responsible for restructuring the sector, the share issue may yield more than zł.700 million for GL. Work on the issue prospectus is in progress. However, despite the hopes expressed earlier by company president Paweł Olechnowicz, it will not be ready before December. This would mean that at the earliest Lotos would go public in February or March 2005. To make this possible, the company is considering delaying its planned consolidation with the Jasło, Czechowice and Gorlice refineries until after the share issue. Earlier, Nafta Polska president Krzysztof Żyndul declared that the consolidation process would start in September, but this clearly is not going to happen. Postponing the consolidation process may negatively affect Lotos’ debut since, out of the three refineries, only one of them achieved a positive financial result for H1 2004. (Puls Biznesu, pp.1, 4) E.B.