Because there is an increasingly clear lack of real successes in the coalition government led by Donald Tusk, and even friendly media are already starting to point out its absurdities, such as the largest government after 1989 (the Prime Minister already has 110 ministers appointed, and this is not the end of the nominations), we are increasingly betting on the games. The target of such games has long been the multi-energy concern Orlen and its president Daniel Obajtek, probably because he introduced it to the world’s hundred largest companies and turned it into a lever to accelerate the construction of power plants. renewable energy in Poland.
Now the report of the Supreme Court of Auditors on the merger of Orlen with Lotos contributes to a new wave of these attacks, but after the publication in the fall of last year of an overheard conversation between the President of the Supreme Court of Auditors, Marian Banaś , and Tusk’s envoy, Prof. Marek Chmaj, in which the first directly says: tell the “boss” that we have “gifts” for him (reports) about attacking PiS, it is difficult to take these documents seriously. Moreover, the merger was approved by over 98% of Lotos and Orlen shareholders, and yet they voted with their money at the AGMs, so it is difficult to assume that they as a whole were misled.
Orlen did something that seemed impossible
The strangest thing about these attacks on Orlen is that it is a company that has contributed more than 10% to the budget in recent years. all incomes, and by 2023 this will most likely be as much as 12%. these incomes. Naturally, this concerns payments to the budget for all taxes: income tax, payroll tax for employees, but also VAT and excise duty payments; in 2023 this most likely exceeded PLN 70 billion, while all budget revenues amounted to around PLN 600. billion zloty. Questioning the merger that Orlen carried out with Lotos, and subsequently the acquisition of PGNiG, and announcing that government lawyers will investigate whether it can be declared invalid, as Donald Tusk did at a press conference yesterday, is extremely irresponsible and calls for issues. including a serious reduction in corporate profits and, as a result, contributions to the budget due to various taxes.
Let’s not forget that in 2022 (there are no complete data for 2023 yet) the sales value of Orlen after the above-mentioned mergers approached PLN 280 billion, with more than 40 percent of this turnover coming from abroad, and the net profit amounted to as much as 33 .6 billion PLN and was three times higher than in the previous year. Moreover, in the last two years (2021-2022), the company paid almost PLN 10 billion in corporate income tax (CIT) alone. In total, in the years 2016-2022, just one Orlen achieved a net profit of as much as PLN 70.4 billion, meaning that this was more than PLN 12 billion more than the total revenues from the PO’s privatization of more than 950 companies. -PSL government in 2008-2015, which amounted to approximately PLN 58 billion, and this fact is particularly embarrassing and incriminating for Donald Tusk, who was the head of that government for seven years. Moreover, in connection with the recommendations of the European Commission on the use of the so-called On the excessive profits of the energy sector to mitigate the effects of price destabilization on the energy commodity market, Orlen has allocated as much as PLN 14 billion of these profits in 2023 to freezing gas prices in households, businesses and the social services sector. In addition, Orlen still pursues a policy of maintaining the lowest possible level of fuel prices on the domestic market, and all European statistics confirm that Poland has one of the lowest fuel prices in all of Europe.
Moreover, in 2022, after merging with Lotos and PGNiG, Orlen SA did something that seemed impossible: it completely stopped buying oil and natural gas from Russia due to that country’s aggression against Ukraine. Let us not forget that at the end of the PO-PSL government, in 2015, oil supplies from Russia accounted for as much as 90 percent. Polish imports, after less than 8 years we could do without Russian raw materials, without negative consequences for the Polish economy. This was possible thanks to the cooperation of the largest petrochemical company in the world, Saudi Aramco, which on the one hand bought 30% of the shares in the Lotos refinery and on the other hand already supplies more than 50%. crude oil processed by Orlen in its 7 refineries. In 2022, Orlen also finally stopped supplying Russian gas, although in 2015 as much as more than 90% of this raw material was imported from Russia, and in 2010, immediately after the Smolensk disaster, there was a shameful attempt by the PO-The PSL government signs gas deal with Russia until 2037.
This major concern has also started implementing two major investments that will have an impact on changing the structure of the Polish energy mix. This year, the construction of large wind farms in the Baltic Sea with a total capacity of 5.2 GW will begin. which constitutes as much as more than 25% of the current installed capacity in Poland’s renewable energy capacity. Preparations are also underway for the construction of small nuclear reactors, the so-called SMR, Orlen, together with the American company GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, which has the technology in this field, has set up a special purpose vehicle that will implement this project (Orlen Synthos Green Energy). The implementation of such projects by Polish companies, the value of which is in tens of billions of zlotys, has not been possible so far because Polish companies did not have the right asset potential and, therefore, financial capabilities (only a turnover of 300 PLN). billion and a net profit of PLN 30 billion per year, which Orlen currently achieves, they create such opportunities).
PO politicians show their true colors
Extremely brutal, months-long attack by politicians on the platform of a company that not only guaranteed the energy security of Poland and Poles in the situation of the ongoing war on our eastern border, but also managed to turn away from Russian raw materials in such a difficult situation. time, and makes billions of investments and generates more than 10 billion euros annually in budget revenues, it seems that the branch on which this coalition sits is being cut off. There is no doubt that the creation of a large multi-energy concern (the fifth fastest growing company in the world in 2022) is proving to be not only a financial success, which is already visible in the company’s results for both 2022 and 2023. , but above all, it creates enormous investment opportunities in the widely understood Polish energy sector, which cannot be overestimated given the acceleration of the EU’s implementation of its ambitious climate policy.
Platform politicians, led by Donald Tusk, by attacking Orlen, talking about its monopoly (although it owns only 24% of gas stations in Poland) and the need to break it up and perhaps privatize it again, show their true colors if it comes to that. the management of the assets of the Ministry of Finance.
Source: wPolityce