The Budapest Stock Exchange announced that trading of shares of the Hungarian oil and gas company MOL has been suspended at the request of the company until the end of Monday, February 2.
Trading of MOL shares was suspended on Thursday just after 2 PM, according to a statement from the Budapest Stock Exchange, citing a recent important announcement from the company."The issuer informed the exchange on January 29 that it plans to make an extraordinary announcement that could significantly affect the price of its shares and requested a suspension of trading", said Gyorgy Mohai, the CEO of the Budapest Stock Exchange. According to Bloomberg, MOL requested the suspension of trading of its shares following the Croatian government’s decision to purchase the unprofitable underground gas storage facility Okoli from INA, in which MOL has a 47% stake.
The Croatian government approved a contract on Thursday under which Plinacro will purchase the underground natural gas storage facility Okoli from INA for 514 million kuna. Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polančec and MOL CEO Zolt Hernadi will sign today at 2 PM at the Ministry of Economy the First Amendment to the Agreement on Mutual Relations concerning the company INA and the Main Agreement on Gas Business. The CEOs of INA and Plinacro will also sign the Purchase Agreement for 100% of the business share in the company Underground Gas Storage Okoli.
"This is good for MOL as it will not have to deal with unprofitable gas operations," said Akos Herczenik, an analyst at Raiffeisen International Bank in Budapest. "I think this will not impact MOL’s share price as the market has known about this for some time," Herczenik told Bloomberg. The MOL Group is the largest Hungarian company, a shareholder in the Nabucco pipeline construction project, and a leading player in the oil and gas markets of Central Europe.(H)
