PKN Orlen chief accepts Rotch-Lukoil initial price offer

The head of PKN Orlen, Zbigniew Wrobel, has announced his willingness to initially accept the price proposed by the Rotch-Lukoil consortium for a 75% stake in the Gdansk Refinery, despite the fact that Lukoil is no longer an active participant in the deal. The two companies declared at the beginning of September that they estimate the value of the stake at $274 million. On Wednesday, Treasury Minister Wieslaw Kaczmarek announced that other potential investors should not offer a price lower than that proposed by the British-Russian consortium. "We will accept the offer only if the research conducted in the company does not reveal unfavorable facts," said Wrobel. PKN Orlen is currently awaiting the agreement of Nafta Polska in order to form a consortium with Rotch Energy, which recently decided to quit co-operation with Russia's Lukoil. (Puls Biznesu, p. 3) A.K.