PKN Orlen

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PKN Orlen (Polish: Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen) is a major European oil refinerer, and petrol retailer. The company as of June 2006 is Poland's and Central Europe's largest publicly traded firm with major operations in Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, and the Baltic States.

1 Establishment
2 Privatization
3 Brands and Subsidiaries of Grupa Orlen (PKN Orlen Group)
4 Websites

[edit] Establishment

Orlen is Poland's largest and most internationally recognized company^{[citation needed]}. The firm is made up of the merger of Poland's two communist oil monopolies. PKN Orlen has its roots in the creation of C.P.N., Communist Poland's petroleum retail monopoly in 1944. In 1950s the second block of PKN Orlen was formed, Polski Koncern Naftowy (PKN). PKN was the state firm in charge of refineries in Płock, a city near Warsaw, that grew to become the largest complex of its kind in Poland.

[edit] Privatization

In 1999 both firms were semi-privatized and merged to create a retail and refining company under the name PKN Orlen. Today Orlen is the largest petroleum retailer in all of Poland with over 2000 stations. It also has significant investment abroad with a chain of 500 stations in Germany and a majority stake in UniPetrol, a Czech refiner. PKN Orlen had been involved in talks with MOL, a Hungarian oil company in 2005. If merged the two firms would have created an international giant, and dominate Central Europe's oil industry. However the planned merger failed due to high politicalization. Following the dropped merger plans Orlen did buy a majority stake in Czech Unipetrol. The company in May of 2006 announced its largest investment ever, when it took over majority share of Lithuania's Mažeikių Nafta, the largest company in the Baltic States, from Yukos. When the takeover is complete PKN Orlen will be Central Europe's largest company.

PKN under a joint venture with Swiss firm Bassel owns also Poland's largest plastic company.

Today the company has sales worth $13 Billion USD annually and a market value of 8,89 Billion USD.