Slovenia’s Petrol Says Interested in Buying Croatian Fuel Retailer Crobenz - Reuters

"We sent a letter of intent to show that we are interested in the purchase but so far there are no obligations involved," Reuters quoted Petrol's spokesman Aleksander Salkic as saying.

He did not say how much Petrol would be willing to pay for Crobenz, Reuters added.

Crobenz (www.crobenz.hr) has 14 filling stations in Croatia. Petrol is the second largest fuel retailer in Croatia where it operates 70 filling stations.

In June, Croatia's anti-trust authority, AZTN, cleared a deal that allowed Hungary's MOL to gain control over INA but instructed the Croatian company to dispose of its Crobenz filling stations over the ensuing nine months due to market share concerns arising from the merger of the two companies' fuel retail businesses in the country.

MOL owns 47.15% of INA and the government in Zagreb holds a stake of some 44%.

Petrol operates some 430 filling stations in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro.