Unipetrol to finalize transaction of acquiring Eni’s stake in Ceská rafinerska

01-Apr-15

Unipetrol, subsidiary of PKN ORLEN, has received, from the Office for the Protection of Competition, a final decision regarding the purchase of Eni’s 32.445% stake in Ceská rafinerska. After the transaction closing, which is expected in Q2-2015, Unipetrol will become a sole shareholder of Ceská rafinérská. After the acquisition of Shell´s stake in early 2014, Unipetrol’s share in the share capital amounts to 67.555%. After the completion of the transaction with ENI, Unipetrol’s share will increase to 100%. "In particular, we decided to purchase the stake in Ceská rafinérská to ensure the feedstock for our petrochemical production, which will be the main producer of the group´s profit in future," says the CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of Unipetrol, Marek Switajewski. "The acquisition opens up possibilities for further improvements of the operational management of the Czech refineries and will enable strategic control over these assets. We expect an improvement especially in terms of operational cost savings," adds Marek Switajewski. CESKÁ RAFINÉRSKÁ, a.s. operates refineries in Litvínov and Kralupy nad Vltavou, currently the only two refineries in the Czech Republic. The refinery in Litvínov - Záluží is a modern comprehensive refinery with high hydro refining capacity operating two crude oil distillation units, four conversion units, and a number of technological facilities for improving the quality of primary distillate products. The total processing capacity is 5.4 million tonnes of crude oil per year. Since 2001, the refinery in Kralupy has been a comprehensive conversion refinery with a modern fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCC), by which was developed the previous hydro-skimming refinery with a processing capacity of 3.3 million tonnes of crude oil a year.