Orlen bigger than Bayer. The Polish champion is getting higher and higher in the ranking of EU companies

Orlen, as the largest Polish company, has surpassed the German Bayer, a global pharmaceutical giant and once the largest German company, with its market capitalization. The Polish champion is currently the 11th largest company in Europe from the fuel sector and 112th in the entire EU.

At the end of October 2025, Orlen shares were again selling for over PLN 100 after a six-year break. Although the historical record price from 2017, when the shares stood at PLN 134.45, is still missing, the valuation itself is at an all-time high. Why? This is the result of mergers and acquisitions that Orlen has made in recent years. In 2020, it bought Energa in 2020, and in 2022 it absorbed Lotos and PGNiG, issuing new shares to the existing shareholders of the latter two companies.

Before the merger with Lotos and PGNiG, Orlen's share capital was divided into nearly 427.71 million shares. The volume of merger issues amounted to over 534.49 million shares, after all transactions were completed There are currently exactly 1,160,922,049 shares of Orlen. With Thursday's closing valuation of PLN 100.60 per share, this gives a market valuation of PLN 116.79 billion.

Orlen bigger than the former German giant

Converted to US currency Orlen's valuation is USD 31.84 billion. More than, for example, the German concern Bayerwhich is currently valued at $30.52 billion. This pharmaceutical giant, in the spring of 2015, boasted a valuation that was more than four times higher and, alternately with the Volkswagen Group, was the most valued German company. However, this is all in the past, and the problems after the merger of Bayer with the American Monsanto, related to lawsuits over the carcinogenic glyphosate, continue to this day.

Bayer has lost importance in terms of valuation and is overtaken in the DAX index, which brings together the largest companies on the German stock exchange, by 27 companies, including the currently largest German company, the IT company SAP, valued at USD 304 billion. This is over 9.5 times more than Orlen, the largest in Poland, is currently worth. In the entire EU, Orlen ranks 112th in terms of market valuationlosing almost $1 billion to Ryanair.

Almost the largest in the region and eleventh in Europe

On the other hand, in your industry, At the end of October, the Polish champion was the eleventh largest company in the oil & gas sector in Europe. The website companiesmarketcap, which aggregates market data and converts stock exchange valuations from the local currency to dollars, reports that Orlen is ahead in the European industry, among others. the Spanish Repsol (USD 20.67 billion), the Austrian OMV (USD 18 billion), the Portuguese Galp (USD 14.5 billion) and the Hungarian Mol Group (USD 7 billion).

Before Orlen in Europe there are British Shell ($219.6 billion) and BP ($90 billion), French Total Energies ($136.3 billion), Norwegian Equinor ($60.9 billion), Italian concern Eni ($55.5 billion), Czech CEZ ($32.9 billion) and a group of Russian state-owned companies: Rosneft ($51.8 billion), Lukoil ($47.9 billion), Gazprom ($34.8 billion), Novatek ($40.6 billion).

Over 100 percent of Orlen shares

Comparing Orlen to its industry counterparts in Europe, although this is a great simplification, as the profiles of each of them are different, from exploration and export of oil and gas deposits, through oil processing and refining, gas distribution, to focusing on electricity production, it is worth noting that the share price of the Polish company stands out this year in comparison to the sector and clearly beats this year's rates of return, gaining almost 104%.

However, you must remember that firstly Orlen's price is catching upwhich appeared, for example, in 2024, when it was the worst compared to the above-mentioned companies, falling by nearly 23% throughout 2024, with low declines of several percent, e.g., for OMV or MOL.

Moreover, in Orlen shares investors began to notice the great potential of long-term investment more about this in the article “Orlen is the general of the stock market boom”. As a large, liquid company, it is also eagerly chosen by foreign investment funds that want to gain exposure not only to the Polish energy sector, which is doing very well this year, but more broadly to the Polish stock exchange and the domestic economy, which has been written about in the Western media.

Orlen's book value is even higher

Finally, it is worth recalling once again that to the company's record price in 2017, the Orlen share price would have to increase by over 33 percent. The price is currently also below the book value per share, which, according to the half-year report, amounted to PLN 124.62 per share of the Group at the end of June. The equity of the entire Group (attributable to jd shareholders), i.e. the difference between total assets and its liabilities, was calculated in the last financial report at PLN 145.7 billion.

Assets amounted to PLN 255.37 billion. However, it must be remembered that the company's assets have increased dramatically due to mergers and acquisitions. Before the acquisition, Energia's assets were valued at PLN 20 billion, Lotos's at PLN 29 billion, and PGNiG's at over PLN 120 billion. Currently, with a stock exchange valuation of approximately PLN 117 billion, Orlen is the largest company on the WSEof those listed in the main price indices, ahead of the WIG20 banks PKO BP (PLN 96.3 billion), Santander (PLN 51.4 billion) and Pekao (PLN 51.4 billion) and the insurer PZU (PLN 50.8 billion).

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