MOL responds to Croatian PM’s announcement on INA buyout
Budapest, December 27 (MTI) – Hungary’s MOL remains open to talks on the future of Croatian peer INA, the oil and gas company said in a statement on Sunday, responding to an announcement by Croatia’s prime minister that the state would buy out MOL’s stake in INA.
MOL said it had not yet been officially informed by the Croatian government on the matter.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Saturday said the state would buy back MOL’s stake in INA.
The announcement was made after an international arbitration court in Geneva ruled in favour of MOL in a case brought by the state of Croatia.
Plenkovic noted that the arbitration court had found insufficient evidence of corruption related to MOL’s acquisition of management rights in INA and had not invalidated a shareholders agreement between MOL and the Croatian government signed in 2009.
MOL welcomed the court’s decision on Sunday.
MOL owns just under half of INA’s shares but exercises management rights in the company. The state of Croatia is the other big stakeholder. Both sides have been at odds over the company’s strategy for years.
MOL chairman-CEO, Zsolt Hernádi, was earlier acquitted of charges he had bribed Croatia’s former prime minister, Ivo Sanader, to give MOL management rights in INA.
Source: MTI
