FRANKFURT, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Poland's largest refiner PKNOrlen aims to buy petrol stations in Germany to expandits network in Europe's biggest economy, the chief of PKN'sGerman business told a newspaper.
"Over the coming five years, we want to grow our network ofpetrol stations under the Star brand from almost 570 to as manyas 750," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quoted Michal Brylinskias saying.
PKN is looking for takeover candidates especially in thesouthern German state of Bavaria to complement its network inwestern, northern and eastern Germany, the paper said.
Brylinski said the most likely takeover targets wereindependent filling stations as bigger rivals are currently alsomore interested in expansion than divestments.
"Margins are tight, but still none of the big rivals wantsto sell petrol stations," Brylinski said.
According to the paper, PKN has a market share of about 4percent in Germany, giving it the seventh-biggest chain ofpetrol stations in the country behind rivals including Aral, Shell, Jet and Avia.
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