MOL increases offer in battle for PKN Orlen stake

Hungarian oil concern MOL has raised its offer for a 17.6% stake in domestic oil giant PKN Orlen. The zl.5 increase brings the price per share up to zl.30, which represents a premium of around 60% on the current market valuation of PKN Orlen. The 17.6% stake, which MOL's new offer values at around zl.2.2 billon, is also coveted by OMV of Austria, reported by Gazeta Wyborcza to have offered zl.26 per share. According to CDM Pekao SA analyst Rafal Jankowski, increasing its offer is a desperate move by MOL, since it will lower the value of any new entity that might be formed with PKN Orlen by either MOL or OMV. Meanwhile, Puls Biznesu reports that PKN Orlen's labor unions are unhappy about a foreign investor acquiring the stake in the company. They say that whether the buyer is MOL or OMV, the result will be chaos in the domestic oil sector. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 16; Puls Biznesu, p. 10; Reuters) P.J.