PKN Orlen should close financing of Lithuanian refinery acquisition in September

PKN Orlen will make binding decisions in September regarding the financing of its planned acquisition of Mazeikiu Nafta, CEO Igor Chalupec told reporters Thursday. He also added that the issue of interrupted crude oil supplies from Russia to the Lithuanian refinery would not boost the financial costs of the transaction.

Our view: It seems like PKN Orlen together with Polish government are very determined to acquire Mazeikiu regardless of which difficulties with supply might occur. We see the news as negative as we feel that decision on Mazeikiu is increasingly driven by political and not economic reasons. It is also strange for us how the politicians urge PKN to make decision on the form of financing. In our view, they might consider the decision on this as a point of no return.