By Veronika Gulyas
BUDAPEST--Hungary's largest company and central Europe's biggest
refiner MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU) and Croatia once again couldn't get
ahead with talks on MOL's Croatian subsidiary INA.
At the fifth round of talks about the Croatian company's future
held on Friday, there was no progress in either Croatia buying back
management rights and an ownership stake from MOL, nor in securing
a favorable long-term relationship while keeping the status
quo.
Talks in Zagreb on Friday relate to the spat between the
Croatian government and MOL. Croatia wants to regain control of
INA, in which it holds a 44.8% stake following INA's privatization
in 2003. MOL owns a 49.1% share, plus management rights.
"Regrettably, once again we were not able to discuss business
issues and, despite previous promises by the [Croatian economy]
minister, we haven't heard any suggestions how the regulatory
environment could be improved," MOL said in a statement after the
talks in Croatian capital city Zagreb.
Croatian Economy Minister Ivan Vrdoljak said the government
proposed setting up a new shareholders' agreement, while MOL said
it would continue to develop INA and reiterated its openness to
continuing negotiations with Croatia.
To date, MOL has invested a total of 1.4 billion euros ($1.96
billion) directly into the Croatian economy, the company said.
MOL and Croatia are involved in a bribery case in which, in
2012, former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader was convicted of
accepting bribes while he was in office, to allow MOL to have
management rights over INA, according to a Croatian court.
MOL has repeatedly said the case was politically motivated and
denied all these allegations. The company said Zsolt Hernadi, MOL's
chairman and chief executive has proven that the allegations are
unfounded and the case is without merit.
Write to Veronika Gulyas at veronika.gulyas@wsj.com
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