Kulczyk plans to buy holding company that will own RG

According to unofficial information in Puls Biznesu the richest Polish private entrepreneur, Jan Kulczyk, intends to purchase a majority stake in a company owned by the Rotch energy group. "He is negotiating to the buy 51% of the shares in a Rotch subsidiary which will acquire the majority stake in Gdansk Refinery (RG). In this way, Kulczyk and PKN Orlen may secure not only operational, but also financial control over the refinery," said a source close to the negotiations. "Formally, of the 75% of shares in RG owned by Nafta Polska, 25% minus one share would go to PKN Orlen and the remaining majority stake (50% plus one share) would go to Rotch energy. If Jan Kulczyk becomes the majority shareholder of the Rotch subsidiary which would acquire the refinery, he would then effectively be the person who decides the future of RG," the source said. For the time being, formally at least, Rotch is still in a consortium with Russian Lukoil, but has requested permission from Nafta Polska to create a new consortium with the Plock refinery. "We are now waiting for the decision," PKN Orlen president Zbigniew Wrobel said. (Puls Biznesu, p. 5) A.Z.