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Till a couple of years in the past, Daniel Obajtek was the mayor of Pcim, a village whose identify will get used derogatorily by different Poles to discuss with a spot in the course of nowhere.
Now, Obajtek stands on the predominant crossroads of Polish enterprise and politics, as chief govt of the state-controlled oil and fuel group PKN Orlen, which can be the biggest listed firm in central Europe.
His lightning-fast rise from native politics to nationwide prominence on the helm of Poland’s greatest firm has been facilitated by a rightwing authorities that has sought to tighten its grip on Poland’s financial system in addition to different establishments, notably the judiciary.
And Orlen, with its white-and-red eagle emblem that resembles Poland’s coat of arms, has grow to be the nation’s emblematic state firm. Since taking cost in 2018, Obajtek has masterminded a takeover spree throughout which Orlen acquired a number of different home vitality corporations.
In 2021, Orlen additionally accomplished its buy of Poland’s largest proprietor of regional newspapers, on the again of a authorities pledge to “repolonise” the media and cut back the affect of international media teams.
Obajtek’s urge for food for offers appears removed from satiated. The European vitality disaster sparked by Russia’s all-out assault on Ukraine helped double Orlen’s revenues final yr, so the corporate has a battle chest of $80bn, and plans to spend $9bn on investments this yr alone.
The rise of Orlen displays Poland’s new standing as a European bulwark in opposition to Russian affect and aggression. “Constructing a nationwide and regional multi-energy champion is completely cheap and matches completely the timing of Poland gaining crucial significance in international geopolitics,” says Michał Piekarski, the associate accountable for vitality and infrastructure within the Polish workplace of regulation agency Baker McKenzie, which has labored for Orlen.
However as Poles put together to vote in a fiercely contested nationwide election scheduled to happen this autumn, Obajtek and the corporate he runs have grow to be central to a roiling political debate in Poland over the state’s affect on the vitality market and the remainder of the financial system.
His tentacular attain and private ties to Jarosław Kaczyński, the chief of Poland’s ruling Regulation and Justice get together, or PiS, have drawn unflattering comparisons between Orlen and the chaebol mannequin of family-controlled conglomerates that lengthy dominated South Korea’s financial system.
Specifically, the corporate’s growth into media has drawn it into the broader debate over whether or not Poland’s authorities has been respecting the rule of regulation, freedom of expression and particular person rights together with these of the LGBTQ neighborhood.
Opposition politicians have additionally been asking why Orlen was in a position to enrich itself due to increased gas costs whereas Polish residents struggled with hovering vitality payments and 25-year excessive inflation. Opposition chief Donald Tusk accused Obajtek of being certainly one of “Putin’s oligarchs”.
Obajtek, 47, insists that Poland’s ruling politicians don’t dictate his technique. As a substitute, he argued throughout an interview with the Monetary Instances that Orlen wanted to realize clout in a fast-transforming vitality sector that can be forcing the corporate to diversify away from fossil fuels.
If something, Obajtek portrays Orlen as enjoying catch-up to European rivals similar to France’s TotalEnergies, Italy’s Eni and Spain’s Repsol, which reworked earlier from state-owned oil refiners into diversified and international vitality corporations with the blessing of their governments.
“Not one of the mergers we’ve got accomplished is a political one, that’s solely what irresponsible [opposition] politicians say,” Obajtek says. “We don’t construct a chaebol. If that’s the case, then all European [oil] corporations ought to be known as chaebols. They went precisely the identical path, they merged as Orlen is doing now, however these corporations did it 10 to twenty years in the past.”
Nonetheless, Obajtek’s critics see his actions as proof that the state is searching for to leverage company pursuits to fulfil political ambitions. The federal government has pushed exhausting to return Poland to “full state management of the financial system, month by month and sector by sector”, says Janusz Wiśniewski, a former chief working officer of Orlen. “This appears very improper.”
From mayor to magnate
Little in Obajtek’s previous appears to have made him predestined to steer Poland’s company champion. He initially skilled to grow to be a vet, however then accomplished agricultural research earlier than turning to native politics.
In 2011 a violent storm hit the pepper farms round Obajtek’s village of Pcim. The mayor’s emergency response caught the eye of Kaczyński, who visited the world to indicate his assist for rural Poland, a cornerstone of his get together’s citizens.
In 2015 Kaczyński’s PiS received Poland’s election and returned to workplace, from the place the brand new authorities appointed party-friendly managers in state-owned enterprises and different key areas, notably the judiciary.
Its alternative of judges sparked a unbroken confrontation with the European Fee, which has withheld billions of EU funds to drive Warsaw to ensure the rule of regulation.
For Obajtek, PiS’s victory was the prospect to go away second-tier politics and handle as a substitute the state financial system. In 2017 the federal government put him answerable for certainly one of its electrical energy corporations, Energa.
Just one yr later Obajtek was fast-tracked to the highest of Poland’s enterprise ladder and appointed to run Orlen. Energa has since been certainly one of his many acquisitions.
Over the 5 years he has been in cost, Obajtek has received plaudits from vitality specialists for the pace with which he executed offers, a few of which had been thought-about underneath earlier governments however by no means carried out. He additionally will get credit score for prioritising investments in renewable energies similar to offshore wind and nuclear energy, which Poland wants to fulfill its EU commitments to chop greenhouse fuel emissions and abandon its historic reliance on coal.
The corporate’s headquarters are in Płock, a metropolis on the banks of the Vistula river the place Poland’s then communist regime constructed the nation’s flagship refinery. Orlen supplies jobs for about 10 per cent of its residents and likewise contributes in taxes 10 per cent of town finances, in accordance with deputy mayor Artur Zielínski, a former Orlen engineer and third-generation worker of the corporate. He says Orlen’s boss is “in fact a political man”, however with “extra imaginative and prescient for Orlen” than predecessors.
Nonetheless, Obajtek’s Orlen appointment was sudden even by the requirements of a area of Europe the place “politicians usually need affect over the financial system”, says Wiśniewski.
“At an organization like Orlen, the CEO was at all times pleasant to the politicians, however his background got here from oil and fuel or worldwide administration,” he remembers. “Appointing Obajtek is like within the outdated communist occasions when you could have any individual with no particular expertise who out of the blue turns into CEO due to the choice of 1 particular person.”
Obajtek has confronted numerous accusations of fraud and conflicts of curiosity, a few of which underwent authorized critiques however with out producing any cost in opposition to him. One case dug into his political previous and whether or not he had secretly managed a personal firm whereas mayor. Prosecutors closed an investigation with out incriminating Obajtek.
The oil and fuel govt has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and likewise requested in 2021 an audit of his belongings by Poland’s anti-corruption workplace to counter claims that he had purchased actual property belongings with undeclared earnings.
“Are you aware who gave me the best recognition? The so-called opposition media,” he says. “Generally I’ve been introduced as a monster biting to demise anybody who stands in its approach. However in truth I’m a really delicate one that loves artwork, nature, landscapes, and has a really constructive angle in the direction of different individuals.”
Delicate offers
However Orlen’s breakneck growth has led it into extremely politicised environments.
Final yr Orlen considerably prolonged its home footprint by taking on oil and fuel producer PGNiG in addition to Lotos, one other state oil firm based mostly in Gdánsk, the political fiefdom of the opposition Civic Platform get together. The offers gave Orlen near-control over wholesale costs for oil in Poland: it now has greater than 60 per cent of the marketplace for diesel and 70 per cent for gasoline.
To beat EU antitrust issues, Orlen bought a stake in Lotos’s Gdánsk oil refinery to Saudi Aramco, Riyadh’s state oil firm. It additionally bought 417 Lotos petrol stations to the Hungarian firm MOL.
Each offers had been controversial. The Aramco tie-in introduced a rustic with an OPEC+ oil alliance with Russia into Europe’s refining sector. MOL’s growth additionally raised eyebrows amid EU tensions over Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s pro-Russia stance.
Obajtek portrays Aramco as a politically impartial associate to ensure Poland’s vitality safety and substitute Russia’s crude oil. The deal features a long-term contract to dramatically enhance crude oil provides from the Saudi firm.
“I’m enjoying a really clear enterprise recreation with the Saudis and I don’t intend to throw the Saudi facet into the politics on this area and the Saudi facet doesn’t need to do it both,” he says. “They’re impartial: that is a further safety profit for us and our area.”
However Paweł Olechnowicz, who was eliminated as chief govt of Lotos after Pis received workplace in 2015, questions Obajtek’s claims concerning the neutrality of corporations from nations whose geopolitical goals haven’t at all times been aligned with Poland’s.
“If we’re serious about vitality safety, I don’t see how the Saudis or MOL assist Poland,” he says. “The concept Saudi Aramco is sweet for Poland as a result of we are able to purchase its crude oil is nonsense as a result of you should buy crude oil from the Saudis with out having to promote belongings to them.”
Orlen’s most debated funding is its takeover of the newspaper and journal writer Polska Press from the German firm Verlagsgruppe Passau.
Since then, rival media bosses complain in non-public that Orlen has been ravenous them of promoting, even because the oil firm has expanded its sponsorship throughout most facets of Polish life, from the nationwide soccer staff to enterprise conferences and cultural occasions.
Obajtek defends Orlen’s media possession. “Why couldn’t we’ve got our media?” he asks. “If it’s stated to be an error, than why is without doubt one of the richest individuals on the earth, Elon Musk, investing in mass media as nicely, [buying] Twitter, or Jeff Bezos within the Washington Submit? I do know many corporations that by funds or different types of shareholding personal media shops.”
Though the Polish state is Orlen’s largest and controlling shareholder, Obajtek says the federal government has not intervened within the editorial administration of Polska Press.
Nonetheless, Obajtek personally withdrew in March {a magazine} challenge whose cowl was deemed to offend Catholics as a result of it confirmed the late Polish Pope John Paul II holding a cross with a crucified doll, for instance an article about paedophilia amongst Polish clergymen.
Obajtek describes his journal censorship as a one-off, however one thing that he would repeat if wanted: “I can’t permit Orlen to contribute to hurting non secular emotions.”
For Orlen to personal a media group is “not wholesome as a result of Orlen is clearly managed by the federal government and an oil firm has nothing to do with media,” says Zoltán Varga, a Hungarian entrepreneur who has publishing companies in each nations — although he provides the scenario in Hungary is much worse.
A few of the strongest criticism has come from exterior Poland, notably from the Norwegian oil fund that’s the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund and has a 1 per cent stake in Orlen.
In February, the ethics council of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund put Orlen underneath commentary for “human rights issues”, to watch the Polska Press buy and “its implications for freedom of the press and subsequently freedom of expression in Poland”.
Norwegian criticism can be important as a result of Orlen has gasfields in Norway which can be integral to Obajtek’s diversification targets.
Whereas Norway allowed Orlen entry to its fuel, Oslo’s ambassador to Warsaw says Poland should now assure “a stage enjoying area” in its personal vitality market, notably within the award of recent licences to construct offshore wind farms.
Orlen is anchoring its inexperienced transition on this type of renewable energy, after signing a partnership with Northland Energy of Canada in 2021. Final month Orlen received 5 out of the six licenses bought within the newest Polish public sale, with state-owned utility PGE selecting up the final one.
“We see tendencies that with the brand new licences, the Polish corporations take all of them,” says ambassador Anders Eide. For Warsaw to develop a nationwide champion like Orlen is “fully honest and enough, however it’s vital that every one corporations are handled equally”.
European vitality specialists agree. “It appears pure for Poland to need its nationwide utilities to steer the buildout of offshore in Poland however . . . this must be finished by conserving international partnerships in place,” says Giles Dickson, chief govt of WindEurope, the business’s European affiliation.
‘A political man’
Obajtek may not even be concerned within the subsequent public sale if Tusk, the opposition chief, wins this yr’s election and ousts him from Orlen, which appears probably given their private acrimony.
Throughout a current marketing campaign rally, Tusk accused Obajtek of being “certainly one of Putin’s best oligarchs”, claiming that he had saved Poland’s petrol costs exceptionally excessive whereas delaying a call to finish Orlen’s imports of low-cost Russian oil.
However throughout the interview, Obajtek rejected this accusation and skim out a listing of previous statements from Tusk to argue that he helped Russia, together with when Tusk might allegedly have used his management of the European Council to oppose Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines.
“I’ve given you details that present [that in terms of] who will be known as Putin’s oligarch, the reply is just one: it’s Donald Tusk,” Obajtek says.
Such an accusation might have severe repercussions after Poland’s parliament voted final month to create a particular fee tasked with investigating individuals for pro-Russia actions.
The Polish opposition has denounced the fee as the beginning of a political witch hunt that might additionally immediately threaten Tusk and ban him from workplace. On Sunday, opposition forces are planning a avenue protest in Warsaw to defend democracy in opposition to a regulation they name the federal government’s “Lex Tusk”.
However ought to the federal government win re-election, Obajtek can be a contender for a high-profile job inside it. He has been talked about in Poland’s media as a doable alternative for Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, notably final yr when an inflation-fuelled downturn lowered the federal government’s approval rankings.
Obajtek says his solely ambition is to stay certainly one of Europe’s most lively dealmakers. “I’ve no ambition to be a main minister, it was simply to place me at odds with the [current] prime minister,” he says of the media experiences. “My aspect is enterprise: I’m too dynamic for politics.”
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