Surgut would swap MOL packet for INA shares

http://www.bbj.hu/index.php?col=1004&id=50888

Friday 12:15, November 20th, 2009

Russia's Surgutneftegas would exchange its 21% packet of MOL shares for shares in the Croatian oil company INA, the Russian company told the Croatian government in a letter, the business daily Napi Gazdaság said on Friday.

The paper quoted Bloomberg news agency, which in turn quoted the Croatian newspaper Nacional.

MOL raised its stake in INA to 47.16% a year ago.

Napi Gazdaság noted that MOL CEO Zsolt Hernádi had said earlier that MOL had no intention of accepting such an offer and regarded INA as a strategic investment.

Croatia's government, which holds a 44.8% stake in INA, has instructed INA to make personnel changes in its supervisory board. Napi Gazdaság noted that the recall from the supervisory board of Damir Polancec, who resigned as Croatia's deputy prime minister in October, could create difficulties for MOL in Croatia since Polancec was one of the key figures in the series of negotiations between MOL and the Croatian government with regard to INA's gas division. (MTI-Econews)