Poland's PKN Orlen loses takeover defence vote at AGM

30 June 2009 16:26  [Source: ICIS news]

PRAGUE (ICIS news)--PKN Orlen has lost an AGM vote for more takeover defences, the Polish oil, chemical and petrochemical group said on Tuesday.

Shareholders voted out a proposal for statute changes that would have prevented non-state shareholders with capital ties from pooling votes in order to get around limits. Each non-state shareholder is only entitled to use 10% of their voting rights.

Analysts said the managment of state-controlled Orlen attempted to introduce the extra defences at the behest of the government.

Ministers, they said, acted after Russia's Surgutneftegaz made a surprise move that gave it a substantial shareholding in Hungarian oil, gas and petrochemical group MOL.

Following the vote defeat, Orlen's management suspended its AGM for two weeks so that it could prepare a new version of its proposal to put to a new vote. Orlen CEO Jacek Krawiec said he hoped a compromise could be reached.

The state has 58% of the votes at the AGM but a vote of 75% is needed to change the statute.

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By: Will Conroy
+44 20 8652 3214

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