After the purchase of the Mazeikiu Lithuanian refinery, PKN Orlen is now considering new acquisitions abroad, Orlen's president Igor Chalupec told the press yesterday. According to unofficial information Orlen is interested in the purchase of petrol station networks. Press speculates that Orlen may invest in the Czech Republic in order to strengthen the Benzina network of Unipetrol and in Lithuania where it wants to develop Mazeikiu's sales network. Orlen also plans investment in foreign oil refineries. It is analyzing the possibility of investing in the Latvian oil company Ventspils Nafta, declared Chalupec. He also admitted that Orlen is analyzing the Serbian oil company NIS.
Our view: The recent acquisition of Mazeikiu has already weakened the PKN's financial position, so all the next acquirements should be viewed cautiously. At the first sight we do not regard it as a good step to buy the Ventspils Nafta terminal, as though having a double capacity of Butinge terminal it still runs at very low capacity utilization due to a Russian blockade. We also do not see a chance for PKN at NIS. The major competitors MOL, OMV and Lukoil have much stronger fiscal positions and more synergies with NIS two refineries. We believe the news is neutral to the share price.