Minister outlines future for Grupa Lotos at WBJ conference

The State Treasury may decide to increase the share capital of oil concern Grupa Lotos, which presently consists of Gdańsk Refinery and three southern refineries. Deputy Treasury Minister Tadeusz Soroka mentioned this possibility during yesterday's conference organized by the Warsaw Business Journal. In his opinion, the operation would be carried out through selling part of the oil assets belonging to Nafta Polska, the revenues from which would then be able to support Lotos. "The company is undergoing consolidation and might require additional financial means in order to avoid suffering from the operation," added Deputy Minister Soroka. By the end of 2003, the Group will carry out commercial and product consolidation, which will be followed by capital consolidation scheduled for the beginning of 2004. Only then it will be known what the real financial situation of Grupa Lotos is. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B4) M.M.