Will Orlen buy Browar Leżajsk? Boris Budka, Minister of State Assets, answers a question from a member of the Confederation Parliament

An inquiry was sent to the Ministry of State Assets regarding the reactivation of Browar Leżajsk SA by Andrzej Tomasz Zapałowski from the Parliamentary Club Konfederacja. “By decision of the Dutch company Heineken, represented on the Polish beer market by Grupa Żywiec SA, on August 23, 2023, beer production at the legendary Leżajsk Brewery was terminated,” the MP wrote.

Zapałowski noted that local government officials and former employees stood up to defend the Leżajsk brewery. “For this purpose, during an extraordinary session of the Lysajsk District Council (August 30, 2023), a team was formed to save the brewery,” the union representative noted. However, the brewery was not reactivated.

According to Zapałowski, “The real opportunity to save the brewery is the involvement of a large state-owned company, which Heineken will not be able to ignore.” Therefore, the MP asked whether it was possible to buy the Leżajsk brewery (from Grupa Żywiec – editor) by Orlen.

The response to the questioning was provided by the Minister of State Assets, Boris Budka, who explained that “the State Treasury, as a shareholder, has no authority to interfere in the affairs of the company, including the strategy implemented by Orlen in the area of ​​investments, mergers and acquisitions.”

The head of the Maghreb Arab News Agency noted that “decisions of this kind are of a commercial nature and fall within the jurisdiction of the Board of Directors.”

Budka added that Orlin's activities focus on the fuel and energy sectors. “The Orlin Group is engaged in obtaining crude oil and natural gas, which are then processed in refining and petrochemical operations and used in energy and industry,” he wrote.

Therefore, the Minister believes that “the acquisition of food sector institutions does not fit with the Orlin Group’s commercial profile.”