Two Russian Companies, Funds, MOL Eye Poland's Lotos -Sources

Russia's OAO Gazprom Neft (SIBN.RS) and TNK-BP Holdings (TNBP.RS), Hungary's MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU), Polish PGNiG SA (PGN.WA), as well as a few private equity funds are among suitors interested in Poland's second-largest refinery Grupa Lotos SA (LTS.WA), two people familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.

Poland's Treasury Ministry holds a 53.19% stake in Gdansk-based Grupa Lotos and wants to sell its entire stake to strategic investors as part of a privatization plan aimed at plugging the country's budget gap.

The private equity funds may bid in consortia with each other or with strategic investors, they said. The potential consortium configurations are "still in flux," one of the people said.

A third person familiar with the matter said the non-strategic investors might not be private equity funds in the classic sense. "They may be sovereign or quasi-sovereign wealth funds from the middle east."

The Polish treasury ministry has moved back the deadline for non-binding bids for a majority stake in Lotos twice already, most recently giving investors until April 29 to submit their bids.

"The delay was based on feedback from investors," one of the people said. "They are trying to put together financing packages and need more time because of the demanding purchase conditions."

MOL and Gazprom Neft didn't respond to requests for comment. TNK-BP Managing Director Maksim Barski told a news conference on March 1 that his company was interested in Lotos. PGNiG wasn't immeditely available for comment.

Poland's Treasury is being advised on the sale by JP Morgan Chase & Co (JPM) and UBS SA (UBS), according to the ministry's website.

-By Marynia Kruk, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]