PM Orbán: the government would take MOL’s excess profits, shares fall

PM Viktor Orbán announced on his Facebook page this afternoon that the Hungarian government would take the excess profits of MOL, Hungary’s and Central Europe’s biggest oil and gas company.

According to the Hungarian Prime Minister’s short post on the biggest Social Media platform, from now on, the high fuel prices brought about by EU sanctions are in effect in Europe. However, in Hungary, the government will take the excess profits the companies generate, he added. The money will be transferred to the government’s so-called Utility Protection Fund, the prime minister highlighted.

Portfolio.hu, a Hungarian economic news portal, said that the government’s decision was not surprising because the MOL already had a significant amount of “excess profits” and the budget needed every forint since next year would be financially hard.

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MOL realised a significant profit on the cheap Russian Ural-type crude oil the company was able to import despite the EU sanctions. As a result, their operation was profitable even despite the fuel price caps. However, the quantity was not enough to meet the demands in Hungary, so they wrote to the government that the country needed to restart fuel imports which were not worth it during the price cap scheme.

Due to the government’s decision meaning that MOL’s profit will increase further thanks to the abolished fuel price caps, the shares of the Hungarian gas and oil giant went up. However, after Orbán’s afternoon announcement that the trend took a U-turn, portfolio.hu highlighted.

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Source: Facebook, portfolio.hu