Kulczyk Holding has announced that it will not be standing alongside the Hungarian MOL in the purchase of a 17.6 percent stake in petrochemical manufacturer and distributor PKN Orlen for the time being.
Last week the Polish fuels overseer, Nafta Polska, told the Hungarians that henceforth it would only be negotiating with them. Regulations concerning the privatisation of the fuels sector prevented the involvement of Polish businessperson Jan Kulczyk.
For the last two months or so Kulczyk Holding has been trying to create a consortium with MOL in order to invest in PKN Orlen. It would appear that the negotiations, which were to decide upon share allocation amongst other things, were advanced.
The idea of a Polish company being involved was designed to improve the chances of the Hungarians in securing the deal in a similar way to that in which the involvement of Kulczyk Holding improved the hand of France Telecom in the privatisation of Telekomunikacja Polska SA. The consortium of France Telecom and Kulczyk Holding now has a 47.5 percent stake in the former monopoly telecoms operator.
However now that the second bidder for the shares, the Austrian OMV, is out of the running the decision of Nafta Polska should not make any difference in the privatisation of Orlen.
A contract giving MOL negotiating exclusivity was signed on Friday. This exclusivity is guaranteed for ninety days although MOL can pull out earlier if required.
At the beginning of October treasury minister, Aldona Kamela-Sowińska, said that the deal should be completed this year, a period which by the calculations of this writer seems to be less than that allowed in the contract.