Polish Briefing: Will Lotos take Orlen over?

What goes on in Poland on the 11th of April.

Lotos will take over Orlen

Lotos, not Orlen, may be the acquiring side in the planned transaction aimed at combining both concerns – according to information obtained in several independent sources by the Rzeczpospolita daily.

The base scenario assumes that the Gdansk group will issue shares that shareholders of the Płock concern will receive. This will allow the main shareholder – the State Treasury – to carry out the entire operation easier and faster – according to information from “Rzeczpospolita”.

Azoty will bring phosphorites from Morocco

Phosphorites from Africa with an estimated value of PLN 350 million will be imported by Grupa Azoty Zakłady Chemiczne Police within three years. The agreement was signed by a police company and a Moroccan company, Office Cherifien des Phosphates.

The supply of this strategic raw material for the production of fertilizers in Police is to secure the company’s needs by the end of 2020 – according to the information of the press services of the Polish company sent on Tuesday. Annually, the Police need about 1 million tons of phosphate rock.
The contract is of a framework nature – the price for the raw material and its quantity have been agreed for the first year of its duration. Based on this year’s conditions, the value of the entire contract was estimated at approx. PLN 350 million.

As the president of Grupa Azoty Police and Grupa Azoty Wojciech Wardacki emphasizes, the agreement is a continuation of many years of cooperation with the Moroccan company, Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP).

– In recent years, this company has invested enormous amounts in improving the technology of processing phosphate rock, so that the final product has high quality parameters, guaranteeing the maintenance of proper technological regime during the production of phosphoric acid and further compound fertilizers in Police. This is important because due to the high competition on the fertilizer market, our company needs a guarantee of continuous and stable deliveries of a strategic raw material with high quality parameters – said Wardacki. According to him, OCP, the world’s largest exporter of phosphorites, ensures stability.