Hard oil sell
It looks as though it is going to be very hard trying to sell the Jaslo
refinery. By Friday only five companies had shown an interest of the sixty invitations that were sent out. Nafta Polska will decide by the end of this week which companies are to receive information memoranda and then will wait until 25 June for offers. It hopes to finish the privatisation process before the elections.
Companies that received invitations included PKN Orlen, Rafineria Gdańska and Rafineria Trzebinia. The Slovakian Slovnaft and Hungarian MOL almost certainly also received the chance of making a bid.
The aim is to sell the refinery as a whole but it would seem that if no acceptable offers are received then an option of hiving off individual units may be considered. The paraffin manufacturing facility would appear to be considered as a good buy.
Rafineria Jasło has however got problems. In the first quarter of this year it noted a PLN4.4m loss. MD, Józef Folcik, claims that losses are being reduced and that the plant will soon be in the black and blames losses on changes in preferential taxation on diesel manufacture.