October 8 (SeeNews) - Hungary's MOL is ready to sell its shares in the capital of Croatian oil and gas company INA [ZSE:INA], the chairman and CEO of the Hungarian company, Zsolt Hernadi, has said.
MOL is ready to sell its shares in INA if that is what Zagreb wishes, Croatian daily Vecenji List quoted Hernadi as saying in an interview for Hungarian broadcaster TV2 on Sunday.
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The Hungarian company has reduced the operating costs of INA by 300 million euro and this is a problem for somebody, Hernadi said without giving names, according to Vecernji List.
"I can not leave Hungary, although the Hungarian court in August decided not to act according to the latest Croatian arrest warrant. In this situation, Hungary will again need to explain to individual EU countries why this decision has been taken," Hernadi said.
In 2014, Croatia's Supreme Court upheld an earlier decision of the Zagreb County Court to try Hernadi in absentia on charges of bribing former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader to allow the Hungarian group to obtain a dominant position in INA.
In November 2003, MOL acquired 25% plus one vote in INA. It became the largest shareholder of the company, raising its stake to 47.16% via a voluntary public offer in October 2008.
MOL is currently the biggest shareholder in INA with a 49.08% stake. The Croatian government owns 44.84%, with the remaining 6.08% held by institutional and private investors.
In June, INA said it was setting up a data room for due diligence purposes and possible transactions related to its shareholding structure.
Croatia's government said in April it has selected a consortium of Morgan Stanley, Intesa Sanpaolo Group and Privredna Banka Zagreb [ZSE:PBZ] to advise it on the possible purchase of MOL's stake in INA. On Christmas Eve 2016, Croatia's prime minister Andrej Plenkovic announced the government's decision to buy MOL's stake in INA.
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