By Veronika Gulyas
BUDAPEST--Another spat between Croatia and Hungary's MOL Central
Europe's largest oil and gas firm MOL Nyrt (MOL.BU) suggests any
agreement on Croatian refinery INA may be even more distant.
On Monday, Croatian Economy Minister Ivan Vrdoljak claimed MOL
"ruined" INA over the years it has been under its management,
citing a study. On Tuesday, MOL said the comments hurt INA's
reputation and that the study was flawed.
The Croatian government wasn't immediately available to comment
Tuesday.
Mr. Vrdoljak was quoted as saying by several media outlets that
during the past five years Croatia has "lost several billion
dollars," with targets missed and production down.
MOL dismissed the claims and questioned the independence and
credibility of the study quoted by the Croatian minister.
"The minister's recent media approach can only be understood as
an attempt to deflect attention from his recent regulations, which
caused over 1 billion Croatian kuna of damage to INA," Dominic
Köfner, Vice President of Corporate Communications at MOL, said in
a statement.
To date, MOL has invested a total of 1.4 billion euros ($1.96
billion) directly into the Croatian economy, the company said.
This week's developments mark just the latest step in the
ongoing battle 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 of
the refinery and its management rights.
The two parties are embroiled 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 Croatian peer INA, according to a Croatian
court.
MOL has repeatedly said the case was politically motivated and
denied all the Croatian allegations. The company said Mr. Hernádi
has demonstrated to the MOL board's "full satisfaction" why the
allegations are unfounded and why the case is without merit.
Write to Veronika Gulyas at veronika.gulyas@wsj.com