Prague's one-man watchdog

MF Dnes suggested today that Premier Jiří Paroubek interfered with the decision of the Securities Commission (SEC) with regard to PKN Orlen's mandatory buyout offer for remaining shares in Unipetrol. Paroubek reportedly promised his Polish counterpart through an envoy, Zdeněk Doležel, that the SEC would not block the takeover of Unipetrol by PKN, and the Poles promised not to let their investigation into PKN spill over into the CR. If Paroubek put political pressure on the independent SEC, it could explain why the financial watchdog approved a Kč 139 buyout price for Unipetrol, when the shares are selling on the open market for around Kč 200. Paroubek's intervention might have caused hundreds of millions of crowns in losses to Unipetrol's minority shareholders. Paroubek also recently put pressure on the independent energy regulator. There seems to be a pattern forming here.