Unipetrol: 12 potential buyers interested in Kaucuk

Unipetrol announced that there are 12 buyers interested in the 100% stake in Kaucuk. The bidder include both financial and strategic investors. After signing “Confidentiality Agreement” bidders are asked to submit detailed offers. Bids will be classified according to financial criteria, future development of Kaucuk and maintaining cooperative links inside the Unipetrol group. The tender should be finished from two to four months. Note that the sale of Kaucuk is in line with PKN’s strategy (63% owner of Unipetrol) to spin off all non-core assets. We roughly estimate Kaucuk value at CZK 2bn based on comparative multiples of its peers and Kaucuk’s 1H05 results. We see interest in Kaucuk positively, but should not impact today’s trading with Unipetrol.