Rafineria Czechowice seeks investors as restructuring brings modernization

Poland's third largest refinery, Rafineria Czechowice (RC), plans to spend several hundred million dollars on a modernization program, the key element of which is to raise its profile as a petrochemicals producer. The modernization is the latest step in a restructuring process that has seen the company transformed in recent years into a capital group consisting of seven specialized units responsible for such areas as paraffin production and real estate management. Under the latest stage of the restructuring program, these specialized units are being privatized. "We will explore every possible source of investment. I don't exclude a merger or some other form of capital combination," commented RC president Henryk Malesa. Fuel storage and distribution unit RC Paliwa is expected to find an investor in the first quarter of 2002, with PKN Orlen currently involved in talks on a deal. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 4) A.Z.