The National Property Fund has picked a consortium of McKinsey&Company, West LB and EEIP as the state's investment adviser in the privatisation of oil group Unipetrol, the Fund's spokeswoman Petra Krainova said on Thursday, May 29.

The Fund chose the consortium, which will co-operate with lawyers White&Case out of 16 bidders for the post, on the recommendation of a selection committee.

The press has reported that the consortium has offered to accept a fee of 0.74% of the sale price of the state's 63% majority in Unipetrol, estimated by analysts at 10 billion crowns (about $357 million).

McKinsey&Company has recently co-operated with the Fund on its planned liquidation, scheduled for 2005.

Robert Hessenberger, the head of West LB's Czech branch, said he was happy about winning the bid, but said this job would be much more difficult than the privatisation of Transgas. The Unipetrol group is more complex, as it consists of eight big companies, he said, adding that the buyer could be known in a year.

(NewsBase 02.vi.03)