The European Commission has agreed to the merger of Orlen with Lotos

Poland’s biggest refiner PKN Orlen gained EU antitrust approval for its takeover of smaller rival Lotos after agreeing to sell assets to address competition concerns. Approval was conditional on full compliance with the sale of 30 percent of Lotos' shares and 80% of gas stations from its network.

The European Commission has formally raised objections to the acquisition just over three months ago. This was due to fears that the merger of two companies, which are the only ones dealing in refining crude oil in Poland, may hurt the competition.

PKN Orlen, however, made commitments to help solve this problem. They will sell 30 percent of shares in the Lotos refinery with an accompanying large management rights package. This is to give the new owner the right to close to half of the production of oil and gas refineries and to provide it with access to significant storage and logistics infrastructure. In this way, another large player in this area would be created on the Polish market.

The EC also expects Orlen to sell 389 retail gas stations in Poland, about 80 percent of Lotos network.