Czech Unipetrol merges units to streamline group

PRAGUE, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Czech downstream oil group Unipetrol <UNPEsp.PR> is merging its petrochemicals unit Chemopetrol and its Unipetrol Rafinerie trading company into a single entity to streamline the group, Unipetrol said on Monday.

The company, controlled by Polish refiner PKN Orlen <PKNA.WA>, said in a statement it would create a new fully-owned firm to take over Chemopetrol and Rafinerie, which buys crude oil and sells refined products on behalf of Unipetrol.

It said the merger, effective Jan. 1, 2007, should result in no substantial job losses.

"The change ... shall lead to ... an overall improvement in the Unipetrol Group's competitive position on the relevant markets," the company said. ((Reporting by Marek Petrus, editing by David Holmes; Reuters Messaging: rm://marek.petrus.reuters.com@reuters.net; e-mail: prague.newsroom@reuters.com or marek.petrus@reuters.com; Tel: +420 224 190 477))

For main central European company news, double click on [.CEE] E.Europe hot stocks [HOT-EEU] Main E.Europe news [TOP/EAST] Related stories on [HU] [PL] [CZ] [EEU-STX] [EEU-RES] [EEU-E] For real-time index quotes, double click in brackets: Warsaw WIG20 <.WIG20> Budapest BUX <.BUX> Prague PX50 <.PX50>

Keywords: UNIPETROL MERGER/