Unipetrol sees savings from unit integration -CEO

...petrochemicals and trading businesses, Chief Executive Francois Vleugels said on Wednesday.

Unipetrol created a new, wholly owned firm to take over the petrochemicals unit Chemopetrol and its trading company Rafinerie, which buys crude oil and sells refined products on behalf of the group.

Vleugels told a news that Unipetrol would save on the purchase of raw materials as well as on production and trade costs after the integration.

"A lot of value will be created by this merger. We talk about hundreds of millions of crowns in additional margin per year," he said. He expected the merger to bring no one-off items that would burden 2007 earnings.

Unipetrol, owned by Polish refiner PKN Orlen , reported record net profit of 1.56 billion crowns ($76.17 million) in the first quarter.

Second-quarter results are due on Aug. 13.

Vleugels said the company would detail the expected savings as part of a medium-term growth strategy in September.

Unipetrol has revamped its once-intricate corporate structure and sold businesses that did not belong to its core business of refinery, petrochemicals and fuel retailing as part of the restructuring process.

[Reuters/Finance.cz]