An expert hearing on PKN Orlen’s takeover of Lotos Group was held in the Sejm at noon today. The debate, organized by the Civic Coalition Parliamentary Club, was attended by, among others, Paweł Olechnowicz, Chairman of the Lotos Group Management Board in 2002-2016, Dr. Dariusz Wieczorek, author of an opinion on the economic consequences of the Lotos takeover, and attorney Slawomir Staszak, representing Lotos minority shareholders.
Opening the debate, MP Agnieszka Pomaska stressed that „state services have not adequately dealt with the supervision of the sale of Lotos so we – the opposition – must do so. Was the sale of 30% of the Gdansk Refinery to Saudi Aramco and over 400 stations to Hungarian MOL beneficial for Poland and the Polish consumer? Today we will answer that.”
Shocking information about the value of the Gdansk Refinery was revealed by the founder and long-time president of Lotos Group Pawel Olechnowicz – Such valuations were made every two years. For 2020, there is a valuation of the Solomon Gdansk Refinery and it was $4.9 billion, or about PLN 21.7 billion. If you take 30 percent of that, that’s more than PLN 7 billion. Anything is possible, but I would say that in such a deal it is not allowed to sell cheaper,” he concluded. Recall that Saudi Aramco bought shares in these assets for PLN 1.15 billion.
Attorney Slawomir Staszak, representing Lotos’ minority shareholders who challenged the merger resolution, said that currently the only way to block the merger is for the court to issue an order declaring the decisions invalid or revoking them. The case is pending before the District Court in Lodz.
Agnieszka Pomaska declared that PO deputies will demand transparency and „sooner or later they will hold ruling party politicians accountable for this.”
