The Kernel affair. “No 1 deals with this issue in Polish politics!”

Press conference of Deputy Marshal of the Parliament Krzysztof Bosak and Dr Rafał Rzeszotarski, 19 February 2024.

Krzysztof Bosak:
– Welcome to a brief briefing in front of the Financial Supervision Commission, where in a moment, together with Dr. Rafał Rzeszów, investor and lawyer, We're going to intervene on something that I think we can call the Kernel affair fair.. I.e. a situation where 1 of Ukrainian oligarchs tries to remove from the Polish stock exchange, after many years of presence. A company listed on the stock exchange, having gigantic assets in Ukraine. 1 of the largest producers of cereals and oil – owning its own land, own equipment, own infrastructure. He's trying to take this company off the stock marketplace with a very low value. Underserved besides by war conditions. But undercut by targeted actions, calculated for the dilution of Polish shareholders. Calculated to break the stock price, to deprive the company of Polish shareholders and to leave the stock exchange, having 100% of the assets, without having previously, 100%, or even 90% of the reasonably counted shares of this stock exchange company.

These actions, if only under Polish law, would be completely illegal.Ukrainian oligarch named Werewski tries to exploit any legal gaps or any regulatory relaxation at the interface of legal systems: Ukrainian, Polish and above all Luxembourgian, where this company is registered.

Having learned about this case from Polish investors, victims of this situation, both individual ones, but this besides applies, it is essential to emphasize, organization investors, specified as pension funds, which can be lost in a full of hundreds of millions of PLN, and even amounts going in over a billion... Having found out about it, I decided to take care of it.

I couldn't believe it. No 1 in Polish politics deals with specified a serious stock marketplace scandal! This is unbelievable! This case should be solved by the PiSu government. If the Prime Minister had dealt with this case, I'm certain this situation wouldn't have happened at all. Prime Minister Morawiecki was clearly not curious in this issue. We already have another prime minister, and so far he hasn't given any signals to be interested. I'm not leaving this case like this. That is why I spoke about this in November, in December – present we are here, we have an appointment with the president of the Financial Supervision Commission.

Mr. Rzeszotarski I have just met as a typical of investors, shareholders who are unfairly treated and want nothing but to be treated fairly. They have invested their money and want the value of their assets to find the stock exchange rate on the Polish stock exchange, not any unfair activity taking place in Luxembourg for example! We besides anticipate activity from the Polish capital marketplace authorities, i.e. the Financial Supervision Commission, the Stock Exchange and the Minister of Finance, who yet supervises all this. If these institutions decently exercised their powers, there would be no fear among Polish investors, there would be no sale of shares for a 4th free and there would be no anticipation of these manipulations.

There is simply a request for a clear view that with the violation of good customs and Polish law there will be no delisting, there will be no withdrawal of Kernel from the Polish stock exchange. This is what I anticipate from the Financial Supervision Commission, and this is the message we are going to talk to. We have a list of respective very detailed questions we want to discuss with Mr Jastrzębski.