By Veronika Gulyas
BUDAPEST--MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU), Wednesday said that no substantive
evidence on MOL's alleged involvement was presented in a Croatian
court case against former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, who
was found guilty of accepting bribes related to energy company INA,
in which MOL has management rights.
Tuesday a Zagreb court sentenced Mr. Sanader to 10 years in
prison for corruption, including taking bribes from MOL for
granting the company full management rights in INA d.d. (INA.ZG) in
2008.
MOL said in a statement Wednesday that it's concerned about
factual misconceptions in support of this initial ruling. It said
some comments made on the corporate structure at INA, and MOL's
corporate governance procedures and actions in relation to INA, are
factually incorrect; and it intends to question whether the court
procedures regarding the claims about MOL were compatible with
established legal procedures elsewhere in Europe.
"As the largest foreign investor in Croatia we reserve our
rights to take action internationally if this should be necessary,"
MOL said.
MOL owns a 49.1% stake in INA while the Croatian government
controls 44.84%. Over the past two years Croatia has been seeking
to change the shareholders' agreement, in particular over
management rights, between the two companies.
Hungarian state news agency MTI cited Croatian Finance Minister
Slavko Linic as telling Croatian state radio on Wednesday, that the
shareholders' agreement between Hungarian MOL and INA should be
renegotiated as soon as possible.
MOL is set to review its position further after the defense team
of Mr. Sanader decides whether to appeal against the verdict, and
once a final verdict on the case has been reached.
Write to Veronika Gulyas at veronika.gulyas@dowjones.com