The Hungarian oil and gas group MOL has no intention of making a new public offer for shares of the Croatian INA if the current offer does not receive sufficient response, stated MOL’s CEO Gyorgy Mosonyi in an interview with Reuters today.
Mosonyi told Reuters on Friday that, in his opinion, MOL’s offer of 2,800 kuna (576.2 dollars) per share for about 30 percent of INA shares not owned by MOL or the Croatian Government is a “fair offer.” “This price offers a premium of 1,110 kuna compared to the price in the initial public offering a year and a half ago, so I believe this is a fair offer,” Mosonyi said in the Reuters interview. “We do not intend to make a new offer; this is a one-time action. We have made a public offer once and thus fulfilled our legal obligation, and MOL no longer wishes to make any such offers in the future,” he added.
He also stated that there was no reason to raise the offered price. After the expiration of the public offer, MOL will continue discussions with the Croatian Government regarding a possible share swap that would involve 19 percent of INA’s shares out of the 44 percent of shares owned by the Government, as stated in the Reuters text. It is added that MOL’s offer, which is valid until October 3, values INA at 28 billion kuna, but many private and institutional investors consider it too low. According to the latest data from the Central Depository Agency (SDA), as of yesterday, 30,915 shares have been deposited for acceptance of MOL’s offer, which represents just over one percent of the shares to which the public offer relates. (H)
