Czech petrochemical company Unipetrol AS (BAAUNIPE.PR) reiterated its goal of acquiring smaller Czech gasoline station operators to reach 20% market share by 2010, the company's chief executive said Tuesday.
"We're talking with various companies already, and we want to increase Benzina's market share from 14% today to 20% by the end of 2009," Francois Vleugels said in Wednesday's edition of newspaper Hospodarske Noviny.
Unipetrol stated last year the goal of boosting the market share of its retail subsidiary Benzina AS.
The newspaper article speculates, without confirmation from Vleugels, that filling station chains owned by Slovnaft AS, a unit of MOL Nyrt (MOL.BU), as well as local chains Pap Oil and Robin Oil, could be acquisition targets.
Unipetrol is majority-owned by Poland's PKN Orlen SA (PKN.WA).