The European Commission on January 16 under the EU Merger Regulation approved the acquisition of the non-retail lubricant business of OMV Aktiengesellschaft of Austria by OAO Lukoil of Russia. OMV's non-retail lubricant business produces and distributes automotive and industrial lubricants to non-retail customers.

In June of last year, OMV Refining & Marketing GmbH signed an agreement to sell its lubricants business to the subsidiary of Lukoil Group. OMV's lubricants division consists of a sales and distribution organization in Central and Eastern Europe as well as a modern 35,000 tons per year lube blending plant in Vienna, Austria.

The buyer will take over lubricants business in nine European countries, the blending plant in Austria and the "BIXXOL" brand name. Both companies have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would not raise competition concerns given the parties' moderate combined market positions resulting from the proposed transaction. The transaction was examined under the simplified merger review procedure. More information is available on the Commission's competition website (http://ec.europa.eu/competition/index_en.html)
in the public case register under the case number M.7006.

OMV and its subsidiaries Petrol Ofisi and Petrom have already concluded several sales as part of the divestment program. Recently concluded transactions include the sale of the subsidiary in Croatia, OMV Hrvatska d.o.o., at the end of May 2013 and the sale of the subsidiary in Bosnia-Herzegovina, OMV BH d.o.o., in March 2013.

OMV's strategy aims to gradually shift the weight of the share in capital employed from Refining and Marketing to Exploration and Production.

With Group sales of EUR 42.65 (US$55.5) billion and a workforce of around 29,000 employees in 2012, OMV Aktiengesellschaft is Austria's largest listed industrial company. In Exploration and Production, OMV is active in two core countries Romania and Austria and holds a balanced international portfolio. In Refining and Marketing, OMV has an annual refining capacity of 22 million tons and as of the end of 2012 approximately 4,400 filling stations in 13 countries including Turkey. OMV further strengthened its position through the ownership of a 97% stake in Petrol Ofisi, Turkey's leading company in the retail and commercial business.

This Lukoil deal will not have an impact on the lubricants business of Petrol Ofisi, whose business continues as part of the OMV Group.