Closing: MOL, Lotos, and Orlen Petrol Station Transactions Now Closed

Closing: MOL, Lotos, and Orlen Petrol Station Transactions Now Closed

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On December 1, 2022, SMM Legal announced that MOL's acquisition of Lotos Paliwa (reported by CEE Legal Matters on February 2, 2022) had closed. Subsequently, Baker McKenzie announced that Orlen Unipetrol's acquisition of Hungarian petrol stations from MOL (reported by CEE Legal Matters on February 1, 2022) had closed as well. 

According to a MOL Group announcement, Lotos Paliwa will "be re-branded under the MOL brand as a part of MOL’s portfolio expansion. With a strong presence in the region, our company is a major contributor to the whole Central and Eastern European economy; therefore, entering Poland was not only an obvious and natural extension to our portfolio but also a massive step forward."

According to Baker, through the other transaction, "Orlen Unipetrol entered the Hungarian fuel retail market and becomes a significant player by acquiring a nationwide network of 79 petrol stations from MOL. The transaction also covers the acquisition of further 64 petrol stations in Hungary to be handed over by the end of the first half of 2024. This transaction is a part of the complex acquisition of Lotos by PKN Orlen approved by the European Commission."

As previously reported, CMS had advised the MOL Group on its acquisition of Lotos Paliwa, with assets including 417 petrol stations in Poland. Rymarz Zdort advised the Lotos Group on the sale. As the deals were part of a broader asset swap between MOL and PKN Orlen (arising from the merger of PKN Orlen and Grupa Lotos), SMM Legal advised PKN Orlen on the Lotos Paliwa transaction.

According to CMS, the transaction value was set at nearly USD 610 million, with a “variable element depending on the company’s debt and working capital.”

Separately, CMS had also advised the MOL Group on its sale of 185 service stations located in Hungary and Slovakia to PKN Orlen for a total of USD 259 million. Baker McKenzie advised Orlen. As part of the same deal package, Noerr advised the Normeston Group on the sale of 79 service stations in Hungary to MOL – which were then transferred to PKN Orlen.

Noerr's updated team was led by Partner Zoltan Nadasdy and Counsel Akos Mates-Lanyi.

The SMM Legal updated team was led by Partner Tomasz Jaranowski.

The Baker McKenzie updated team was led by Senior Lawyer Daniel Orosz supported by Associate Botond Tass and Junior Associate Dominik Csaszcsu and supervised by Partner Akos Fehervary. The firm's Polish team was led by Partner Magdalena Nasilowska and Associate Pawel Jaros and supervised by Partner Tomasz Krzyzowski.

Rymarz Zdort's updated team included Managing Partner Pawel Rymarz, Partner Jakub Zagrajek, Counsel Aleksandra Dobrzynska-Grezel, Senior Associates Diana Sofu and Pawel Mazur, and Associates Patrycja Gliwka and Filip Goledzinowski.

CMS' team included Partners Lukasz Szatkowski, Blazej Zagorski, Rafal Zwierz, Piotr Ciolkowski, Malgorzata Urbanska, Agnieszka Skorupinska, Eva Talmacsi, and Helen Rodwell, Senior Associates Rafal Burda, Piotr Prawda, Magdalena Zmyslowska, Grzegorz Paczek, Adam Kedziora, Jagoda Nowakowska, Eliska Copland, Krzysztof Sikora, Wojciech Szopinski, and Maciej Olejnik, and Associates Szymon Klimkowski, Anis Ben Amer, Pawel Ura, Michal Tutaj, Mateusz Mazur, Patrycja Styczynska, and Moritz Kopka.