Kulczyk Holding excluded from bid for PKN Orlen stake

Kulczyk Holding will not partner Hungary's MOL in its negotiations on the purchase of a 17.6% stake in PKN Orlen, after Nafta Polska, the company supervising the PKN Orlen privatization, excluded the possibility. Puls Biznesu quotes an anonymous source close to the privatization as saying Nafta Polska justified its decision on the basis of the most recent modification of the government's program for the privatization and restructuring of the oil sector. Kulczyk Holding has been attempting for the past two months to join a consortium bidding for PKN Orlen. However, Puls Biznesu speculates that Nafta Polska may not have been convinced that the participation of a Polish company would have any advantage for PKN Orlen or for the plans to consolidate the crude oil sector in Central and Eastern Europe. Press spokesman for Kulczyk Holding, Andrzej Wisniewski, declined to comment on the reports. The exclusion of Kulczyk Holding is not expected to have any serious impact on the PKN Orlen privatization process. At the beginning of October Treasury Minister Aldona Kamela-Sowinska gave assurances that the transaction would be completed by the year's end. (Puls Biznesu, p. 8) M.T.