The court-appointed receiver of Yukos oil company wants to know where the money Orlen paid for Mazeikiu oil refinery is – according to Polish daily Rzeczpospolita. PKN Orlen transferred USD1.3bn into Yukos' bank account in December 2006, however the Russian receiver does not have the information to which bank the money for a 54 percent stake was deposited with. The receiver warns that if it does not learn where the money is, it will demand compensation both from Yukos International and PKN Orlen. Unnamed PKN representatives said, “they transferred the money to the bank account indicated to them in the contract, so they do not fear from a court challange”.
Our view:
We see the news as a risk factor to PKN Orlen, thus we expect some negative trading impact until the relevant bank account gets clarified with their receiver.