The CEO of the Austrian oil and gas company OMV, Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer, announced an appeal against the decision of the Hungarian Financial Markets Authority (PSZAF), which imposed a fine of 25 million forints (approximately 100 thousand euros) on the Austrian company for misleading the market through a letter of intent to acquire the Hungarian MOL.
"We will file an appeal," said Ruttenstorfer in an interview for the Sunday edition of the Vienna daily Oesterreich. He stated that MOL’s investors are very interested in the merger of the two companies, pointing out the short deadline for filing an appeal. At the end of last week, the Hungarian Financial Markets Authority (PSZAF) imposed a fine of 25 million forints (approximately 100 thousand euros) on OMV for misleading the market with a letter of intent in which it offered MOL’s shareholders 32 thousand forints (128 euros) for each share of the Hungarian company. The Austrian company did not specify a clear timeframe for the validity of the offer in the letter of intent.
In part of the text, it mentioned that it was only willing to pay the stated price under certain conditions, including the removal of the provision limiting voting rights to 10 percent per shareholder. Given the repeated unsuccessful attempts to negotiate with MOL’s management and the fact that the letter of intent did not specify a timeframe for fulfilling the stated conditions, OMV was certainly aware that it was misleading investors, stated PSZAF. Hungarian Finance Minister Janos Veres commented on this by stating that all actors in the capital markets must comply with Hungarian regulations. It is unacceptable for any actor to influence the market with ambiguous offers. "The form and conditions of a public offer are regulated by law, which all market participants must adhere to," emphasized Veres. (H)
