The European Commission has approved PKN Orlen’s plan to acquire the Hungarian company Normbenz Magyarorsag and a number of assets of the Hungarian oil company MOL. Orlen will acquire 144 service stations in Hungary and 41 service stations in Slovakia from MOL for around €229 million.

The EC said that the proposed acquisition would not raise competition concerns given the companies’ moderate combined market position and the presence of strong competitors in Hungary and Slovakia. Normbenz operates a network of service stations in Hungary. MOL’s assets include service stations in Hungary and Slovakia.

In order to obtain the European Commission’s approval for the merger of the companies, PKN Orlen reached an agreement with Hungary’s MOL. The Hungarians will buy 417 Lotos stations for USD 610 million. In turn, PKN Orlen will acquire 144 fuel stations in Hungary and 41 fuel stations in Slovakia from MOL for approximately 229 million euros. The fuel and bitumen logistics area within Lotos Terminals will be bought by Unimot for at least PLN 450 million. Lotos Biopaliwa, on the other hand, will be bought by a company Rossi Biofuel.

PKN Orlen owns stations in Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Slovakia. Thanks to the merger, it will also be present in Hungary.

“The acquisition of 144 stations in Hungary will be a strong entry. It is very difficult to build such a presence organically, i.e. to build from scratch. In Slovakia, it took us more than three years to take over 25 stations”, says Łukasz Porażyński, executive director of retail sales at PKN Orlen.

The director announces that the acquired stations will feature products of domestic producers sold at stations in Poland.

“We are trying to introduce the products of the producers we cooperate with in Poland also to other markets in the region. We will definitely develop the concept in Slovakia and implement it on the Hungarian market. We want to be a vehicle for development for Polish entrepreneurs”, adds Porazynski.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński