• Good financial results: net profit of 1.3 billion PLN in comparison to the loss of 0.6 billion PLN in 2008
• Secured bank covenants due to the substantial reduction of indebtedness (by 2.3 billion PLN)
• Increase in Group’s retail sales volumes by 6%, market share in Poland alone went up to 31%
• Increasing oil supply security thanks to new long term contracts worth 45 billion PLN in total

In 2009 PKN ORLEN’s EBIT was 1.1 billion PLN; i.e. 45% higher than in 20081). Net profit was 1.3 billion PLN (for comparison in 2008 the company suffered a loss of 0.6 billion¹ PLN). Particularly good results were generated by the retail segment – its EBIT was 37% higher than a year before, and sales at fuel stations went up by 6%. The growth rate was higher than the market’s average growth rate and at the end of the year our market share in all markets grew by 1 pp on the average, and in Poland alone it reached 31%.

Last year PKN ORLEN generated 5 billion PLN cash from operations, i.e. 1.5 billion PLN more than in 2008. This way we managed to fulfil the assumption that our operational inflows should be higher than the investment outlays. We reduced the company’s net debt by 2.3 billion PLN, down to 10.3 billion PLN.

2009 was the most difficult period in terms of macroeconomic conditions in the Company’s history. One of the biggest challenges in this period was a substantial drop of the refining margin and the differential. Thanks to the immediate implementation – already at the beginning of the year – of a package of programmes aimed at improving efficiency it was possible to limit to a substantial degree the negative impact of the downturn and PKN ORLEN gained 6 billion PLN of extra funds. This result was among others influenced by the optimisation of CAPEX (0.5 billion PLN), fixed costs (0.6 billion PLN) and operating and investment cash flows (4.3 billion PLN).

In the past year PKN ORLEN achieved its strategic objective which was to conclude new long term contracts for oil supplies. Following negotiations, contracts on favourable financial terms were concluded. The value of the contracts is approximately 45 billion PLN which is a historical result on the Polish market. A completely new and key element in comparison to the contracts concluded before is the fact that the signed contracts guarantee full security of supplies.

 - PKN ORLEN ends a difficult year with very good results. We completed all the priority tasks, and the reduction of indebtedness by 2.3 billion in comparison to 2008 is an enormous success in view of the most difficult macroeconomic conditions in history. Thanks to that we fulfilled the requirements of the loan agreements. The achievement of such results was possible thanks to the determination and effective implementation of the optimisation programmes package. In the subsequent year we will focus on a further improvement in efficiency, growth oriented investments and the development of new segments – said Mr. Jacek Krawiec, the President of the Management Board of PKN ORLEN.

In 2010 PKN ORLEN will continue to seek a further reduction in the company’s level of indebtedness through a systemic solution to the issue of an obligation to maintain mandatory fuel reserves and disinvestments of non-core business assets. Programmes aimed at improving the profitability of the company’s foreign investments, i.e. ORLEN Lietuva and Unipetrol, will be continued. It is planned that key growth oriented investments (among others HONVII and PX/PTA) will be completed this year. Through the development of the upstream segment and the power (energy) segment PKN ORLEN will be moving towards becoming a multi-utility type company.

Press Office

¹ Data for 2008 in accordance with the data reported in the Q4, 2008 report; before adjustments made in the annual financial statements of the PKN ORLEN Group for 2008 of the amount of 2.362 billion PLN, mainly in conjunction with the write-offs due to the permanent loss of the assets’ value.

PKN ORLEN consolidated financial results for 4 quarter 2009