February 2 (SeeNews) - Croatia will pay $235 million (214 million euro) to Hungarian energy company MOL in settlement for an arbitration case regarding oil and gas company INA which the country lost, economy minister Davor Filipovic said.
The amount was provided through a revision of the state budget made at the end of last year, Filipovic told public television HRT late on Wednesday.
MOL filed for arbitration against the Croatian government with the Washington-based the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in December 2013, claiming that Croatia had breached its obligations to take over INA’s loss-making gas business or apply market prices for gas, which it had agreed to do back in 2009.
In July 2022, the Croatian government said it will have to pay $184 million out of a total of $1.1 billion claims of MOL in the arbitration case. MOL said in a separate statement in July that according to the ruling of the ICSID, the Hungarian company was awarded with damages in the amount of $167.8 million plus $16.1 million in damages caused by Croatia by forcing the sale of stored natural gas of INA’s subsidiary Prirodni Plin. Together with interest, MOL was awarded a total of around $236 million in damages, the company said.
MOL is the largest shareholder in INA with a 49.08% stake, followed by the Croatian government with 44.84%.
INA's shares last traded on the Zagreb bourse on January 24, when they closed at 450 euro, up 0.45%.
($=0.911 euro)
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