PKN Orlen of Poland (allied with ConocoPhillips), MOL of Hungary, Royal Dutch/Shell, the Kazakh's state-owned KazMunaiGaz and the Czech-Slovak financial group Penta have confirmed submitting preliminary bids for the state's 63% stake in Unipetrol (Reuters).
BorsodChem of Hungary has also reportedly submitted its bid, the local MFDnes newspaper reports today. According to the newspaper, the seventh bidder is "a small company without much experience in the chemical sector", but according to the LN daily, it is ENI of Italy that submitted the bid (however, other sources denied ENI's bid).
The participation of major regional players in the privatization is important for the price and privatization outcome and is therefore positive for a minority shareholder. According to the LN daily (unspecified sources), the highest indicative bid (for both the equity and debt) has approached CZK 14.5bn (EUR 445m), which implies a possible buy-out price of CZK 77.26 per share. We are skeptical regarding the credibility of the news/source, though.
A shortlist of bidders should be announced by the weekend. Binding bids should be submitted by mid-March and the privatization is expected to be completed by the end of March 2004.
Jan Hajek
Jitka Oppitzová