The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection suspends the proceedings relating to the takeover of Bogdanka by Enea

The President of the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection suspended the proceedings relating to the takeover of the control over the mine from Lublin by Enea. The request was filed by the energy company in relation to the plans of introducing amendments to the Statute of Bogdanka which may block the transaction. If the shareholders of the mining company reduce the possibility of exercising the voting right to 10 per cent, the tender offer will not take place.

The Supervisory Board of Bogdanka convened the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders for 15 October 2015 and proposed e.g. adoption of a resolution relating to the reduction in the possibility of exercising the voting right to 10 per cent of shares (the so called voting cap). A potential adoption of an amendment in LWB's statute as proposed will result in the groundlessness of the proceedings before the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. In such a situation the Office suspended the proceedings. Its resuming, if any, will depend on the conduct of Bogdanka's shareholders.

- The offer lying on the table is very attractive for shareholders. It is not our opinion, it is also positively assessed by analysts and Bogdanka's management board. It is a friendly tender offer, no one else in the current market environment will submit such an attractive offer – estimates Dalida Gepfert, vice-president of Enea.  

Enea has emphasised from the beginning that its engagement in the extraction area is to guarantee reliable supplies of the fuel to the Group at competitive prices. The tender offer is one of the methods to achieve this goal.

- Forward contract prices for coal have just dropped below 50 dollars per tonne. If Bogdanka's shareholders are not interested in our offer, we have other variants of guaranteeing supplies of cheap coal – adds Paweł Orlof, vice-president of Enea.

Obtaining by Enea of an unconditional permit of the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection for the takeover of Bogdanka until the end of the subscription period is a condition for the tender offer to be effective. If it is not satisfied until the last day of the subscription period, i.e. until 16 October 2015, Enea will not be obliged to acquire the shares included in the tender offer. Depending on the shareholders' decision, Enea may also decide to prolong the subscriptions for the period necessary to obtain the permit. However, it may not be a period longer than 120 days from the beginning of the subscriptions.

The energy group announced a tender offer for the shares of the mine from Lublin on 14 September. It offered PLN 67.39 per share to the existing shareholders. The decision on the intention to take over the control over Bogdanka is an element of implementing the final scenario of the Group's development. It foresees building the value for shareholders and guaranteeing reliability of energy supplies to customers. It means the development in all the links of the energy chain of value which will be supplemented with the area of bituminous coal mining. Enea has already updated its strategy within this scope.