Prague, 3 May 2007 – On 1 May 2007 BENZINA a.s., PETROTRANS, a.s. and UNIPETROL DOPRAVA, a.s. changed their legal form from the public company limited by shares to limited liability company. On the same day, the change of legal form was entered in the Companies Register. This change should result in more effective and flexible management of the three companies as part of introducing a new corporate governance model in the Unipetrol group.
Following the change of legal form, the trade names of the companies read as follows: BENZINA, s.r.o., PETROTRANS, s.r.o. and UNIPETROL DOPRAVA, s.r.o.
With the aim of streamlining the companies’ everyday management, the functions of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer were abolished within their internal structure, and their competencies were entrusted to managing directors (the companies’ governing bodies).
The managing directors will make decisions on business management. Following the change of legal form, PETROTRANS, s.r.o. and BENZINA, s.r.o. will have two managing directors and UNIPETROL DOPRAVA, s.r.o. will have three managing directors.
A supervisory board in the mentioned companies will not be constituted; its functions will be executed directly by partners of these companies.
The amount of registered capital of PETROTRANS, s.r.o. and UNIPETROL DOPRAVA, s.r.o. has not changed, while in the case of BENZINA, s.r.o. it has been increased by CZK 704 to CZK 900,779,000. In all essential aspects, the change of legal form will not have a negative impact on the mentioned companies’ liabilities towards their creditors.
UNIPETROL, a.s. is the sole partner of BENZINA, s.r.o.; the partners of PETROTRANS, s.r.o. are BENZINA s.r.o. (99.38%) and UNIPETROL, a.s. (0.62%), and the partners of UNIPETROL DOPRAVA, s.r.o. are CHEMOPETROL, a.s. (99.88%) and UNIPETROL, a.s. (0.12%).
The Unipetrol group has been gradually implementing a new corporate governance model, whose introduction was inspired by large corporations, since 1 January 2007. One of the major objectives of this process is to increase the efficiency, competitive strength and transparency of all procedures taking place within the group. In addition to the change of legal form of several of the group’s companies to limited liability companies, the Shared Services Centre, which began functioning in UNIPETROL SERVICES, s.r.o. on 1 April 2007 should also serve to achieve this goal. The centre provides certain administrative and ancillary activities for other companies of the group pertaining to, among other things, book-keeping, IT and human resources.
The main advantages of the legal form of limited liability company include:
- The General Meeting has the right to reserve any matters for its competence, including matters that are within the competence of managing directors (with the exception of giving instructions concerning the company’s business management);
- Partners of the company also have the right to make decisions outside of the General Meeting (by means of correspondence voting);
- Partners of the company have the legally enshrined right to require and gain information concerning this company, its business and/or activity, including the right to check accounts;
- Partners of the company have the right to directly supervise the company’s business and/or activity.
UNIPETROL is a group of companies operating in the petrochemical industry in the Czech Republic. In 2005 UNIPETROL became part of the PKN ORLEN Group, the largest downstream oil company in Central Europe. UNIPETROL primarily focuses on crude oil processing, fuels distribution and petrochemical production. In all these areas UNIPETROL is one of leading players in both the Czech and Central European markets. It has about 4,000 employees. In 2006 UNIPETROL recorded revenues amounting to CZK 95 billion and a net profit of CZK 1.6 billion.
Contact:
Michaela Lagronová
Spokesperson
Unipetrol, a.s.
Mobile: +420 602 304 708
E-mail: michaela.lagronova@unipetrol.cz
www.unipetrol.cz