The Cabinet on Monday decided that the state’s 63% equity stake in Unipetrol will be sold to Agrofert for CZK 11.7 bil (CZK 102 per share). Reuters reported on Friday that the IOC consortium (Agip/Royal Dutch Shell/Conoco) would exercise its call option for Unipetrol’s 51% stake in Ceska rafinerska, Unipetrol’s biggest subsidiary. We believe that Conoco (a member of the IOC consortium, which reportedly supported Agrofert in its bid) is interested in Benzina. This suggests how the holding will be structured in the future; nevertheless, we believe that there is a great amount of uncertainty related to the future strategy of the holding, and its impact on the value of the minority shareholders’ stakes. We reiterate our hold recommendation. The stock lost 13% on Monday.
(Jiri Soustruznik)