Orlen to put final polish to its European expansion plan

Later today, the supervisory board of oil concern PKN Orlen will familiarize itself with a strategy of creating a major Central European fuel concern. If the government does not accept this proposal, then it will probably float its stake. According to PKN president Zbigniew Wróbel, the new concern would bring together Hungarian MOL, Austrian OMV and Greek Hellenic Petroleum. "Some time ago we signed letter of intent concerning potential cooperation with Orlen, but it is too early to state whether we would expand our c ontacts," said Bea Lukacs from MOL's press office. OMV's representatives are also rather skeptical about the idea of creating such a concern, as they are planning to develop on their own, with a goal of grasping a 20% share of the regional market by 2008. "One should expect that local companies would now grow bigger by acquisitions of smaller enterprises and restructuring, rather than consolidation on the European level," said Rafał Jankowski, an analyst with CDM Pekao. (Parkiet, p. 1) M.M.