PKN Orlen: press speculates that major oils are interested in buying stake in the company

Gazeta Wyborcza speculates that major international oils such as ChevronTexaco and Shell are interested in buying a stake in PKN Orlen. The newspaper reports that highest officials of PKN went to Houston in September and Shell plans to visit PKN in Warsaw on November 20. The newspaper speculates that potential bidders were eager to pay PLN 100 per share for government stake in the company, however, state refused to sell.

Our view: PKN is seemingly interested in a strong partner, which could involve them to E&P projects. It is also obvious for us that management wants to be more independent from Polish politics. Due to political aspect of the issue, we do not expect that talks are in an advanced stage with major oils. However, we can imagine the appearance of speculative buyers on the story, despite we consider the speculated PLN 100 per share price is irrealistic as it implies 17x of 2006 net earnings.