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What goes on in Poland on the 3rd of March.
The EC resumes negotiations with Orlen on the merger with Lotos
The President of PKN Orlen Daniel Obajtek announced that negotiations with the European Commission regarding the merger of PKN Orlen with Grupa Lotos will be resumed.
– The EC has stopped the stop the clock procedure, which means that we are resuming negotiations regarding the acquisition of Lotos Group by PKN Orlen. We have submitted all the documents expected by the European Commission and we expect the final decision regarding the transaction to be issued in the first half of 2020 – wrote PKN Orlen CEO Daniel Obajtek on Twitter.
Stop the Clock procedure
In July, PKN Orlen sent a request to the Commission to take over the Lotos group. In September, the EC gave the company more time to prepare additional, detailed information in the process of acquiring the Lotos Group. At the time, the Commission announced that the “Stop The Clock” procedure, standard for the second phase of negotiations, would be used.
– We expect to suspend the ‘stop the clock’ procedure soon, the European Commission decision in the first half of 2020 and to close the acquisition of Lotos by the end of this year – said Zbigniew Leszczyński, company’s deputy president at a press conference at the end of January 2020.
Orlen has assured that the European Commission’s decision is solely due to the need to gather additional information. However, it means slowing down the process.
