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Polish Senate vetoed Hungarian MOL’s expansion because the company is controlled by Russia
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The Polish Senate accepted a new law blocking Hungarian MOL to buy 417 Lotos petrol stations in Poland. The two companies signed an agreement on the issue in January, but the upper house of the Polish legislation vetoed it.
Huge business plan in danger
According to Piac és Profit, Hungarian MOL announced on 12th January that they signed a 610 million dollars agreement to buy 417 petrol stations in Poland. The seller was the Grupa Lotos SA. If the agreement had been carried through, MOL could have become the third biggest fuel retailing company in Poland. They said then that the agreement’s prerequisite was the European Commision’s green light on the fusion of Lotos and PKN Orlen. The commission cleared earlier that they would allow the fusion only if Lotos sold at least 80 pc of their petrol stations to avoid the creation of a monopoly. Furthermore, Lotos had to sell its shares (30 pc) in the Gdansk oil refinery.
The Senate of Poland vetoed this business plan.
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They accepted a law modification that made the fusion of Orlen and Lotos impossible. Polish Energetyka believes that the legislation’s goal was to block MOL’s expansion in the country. Speaker Tomasz Grodzki said before the Senate’s session that their original plan was not to sell Lotos petrol stations to MOL, a company controlled by Russian money, especially not at the time of an ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
Cannot judge “controlled by Russian money” claim, however MOL processes 14-15 million tonnes of oil per year, of which approximately 9 million tonnes is Russian Export Blend. And you cannot just switch to another input blend (e.g. Brent or Arab Light)…
Appears MOL is highly dependent on Russia!
“a new law baulking”????? BLOCKING!!!!! A mistake repeated in the text.
Thanks, it’s been corrected.
Hungary will pay for this betrayal of EU values, one way or another. The question is how and when. Nobody in Poland will shield you from EU Commission if you want throw us under Russian war machine. You’re part of problem or solution and guess which Hungary is atm, despite efforts of other NATO members ?