As part of this effort, the Polish firm offers CZK380 ($17.53) per share for Unipetrol, in which it already owns 62.9% stake.
However, the tender offer, which is planned to run from 28 December 2017 until 30 January 2018, is conditional on Orlen acquiring at least 90% share capital in Unipetrol. The transaction is scheduled to be settled on 23 February 2018.
Orlen said that increasing its stake in Unipetrol to 90% would cost it PLN3.05bn ($851.1m), while buying 100% stake in the company would cost it PLN4.2bn ($1.17bn).
PKN Orlen management board CEO and president Wojciech Jasinski said: “The current ownership structure prevents PKN ORLEN from reaping the full benefits of the initiatives we have put in motion in the Czech Republic, including our efforts to improve the refining and sales efficiency and our investments in the petrochemical assets.
“Also, minority shareholders have expressed different expectations regarding the dividend policy.
“Once we acquire full control of Unipetrol, we will be able to better leverage the synergies from our optimization measures and the enhanced segment management.”
Orlen said it intends to acquire all of the shares in Unipetrol and delist the Czech company from the Prague Stock Exchange.
The company plans to fund the transaction through its own funds and with a syndicated loan facility available to it.
PKN Orlen CEO Wojciech Jasinski said: “In our strategy, we have allocated to investments PLN5.4bn on average in each of 2017 and 2018.
“Taking full control of Unipetrol will not affect our other acquisition plans, nor will it result in any revision to our dividend policy.”
The tender offer is a part of the firm’s 2017–2021 strategy, which involves integration of refining assets, implementation of the petrochemical value chain, and development of the retail network.
