January 17 (SeeNews) - Croatia has received seven applications under its call for financial consultants on the possible purchase of the stake in oil and gas company INA [ZSE:INA-R-A] currently held by Hungary's MOL, the Croatian finance minister said on Wednesday.
Croatia will extend the call beyond the initial January 15 deadline at the request of some potential bidders and expects some 10 quality applications by the new cutoff date, Zdravko Maric said in an interview aired by public broadcaster HRT.
In December, Croatia's government invited some 20 renowned financial advisors to submit their bids under a call for advisors on the possible purchase of MOL's shareholding interest in INA.
Maric did not specify on Wednesday what the new deadline for the submission of bids will be but said that some financial advisors were unable to bid because of a possible conflict of interest.
"They were all interested, but some of them were in the past also advisors to MOL. According to the rules of such processes, because of a possible conflict of interest, they can not fully meet our expectations and are excluded from the start," Maric explained.
Croatia's prime minister, Andrej Plenkovic, earlier said a government-appointed council in charge of negotiations with MOL has already defined the criteria for the purchase of the INA stake, while the advisor will be tasked with assessing INA's value and identifying possible strategic partners.
MOL is the biggest shareholder in INA with a 49.08% stake. The Croatian government owns 44.84%, with the remaining 6.08% is held by institutional and private investors.
On Christmas eve 2016, Plenkovic announced the government's decision to buy MOL's stake in INA.
Prior to this decision, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) dismissed Croatia's claims of bribery and alleged breaches of a shareholders agreement for INA by MOL. The lawsuit was filed by Croatia in 2014 with the aim to cancel a 2009 deal which saw MOL gain managerial rights at INA without owning a majority stake.