The majority owner of Spolana, Polish Anwil, has offered to buy out shares from minority shareholders for CZK 162 per share. Z.A. Anwil acquired an 81.78% stake in Spolana from Unipetrol for CZK 640.2 mln in late October 2006. Z.A. Anwil and PKN Orlen together now control a 95.181% stake in Spolana.
Our view: This is a technical move to reorganize the structure of PKN Orlen Group, which was largely expected by the market. The share price of Spolana was at CZK 155, which indicates for us that the offer came a bit surprising for minority shareholders. We expect the news to have a neutral trading impact on Unipetrol's share price.