Panenić reminds Hernádi: MOL is not the owner, but one of the shareholders of INA

Member of Parliament and former Minister of Economy Tomislav Panenić on Monday deemed the statement by MOL CEO Zsolt Hernádi inappropriate, in which he stated that MOL can implement its strategy with or without INA, emphasizing that Hernádi is acting baselessly as if MOL is the majority owner, rather than one of the shareholders of INA.

– I call on MOL to discuss INA as a company, investments in INA, and cooperation between INA and the MOL Group together with the Croatian government in the future. Their current stance suggests that they actually do not need any production capacity of INA, that they believe production in Croatia should be halted, and that the refineries owned by the MOL Group are sufficient, said Panenić.

Hernádi, says Panenić, is actually speaking from MOL’s position and reminds that INA “is still not integrated into the MOL Group and cannot be, because MOL is not the majority owner of INA and cannot consolidate its results.”

– We are talking about a fundamental reality, where MOL is not the owner, but one of the shareholders of INA. This is the difference between Hernádi’s stance and the ownership structure of INA. When they have over 50 percent, then they will be able to consolidate business results. As it stands, they are acting in an inappropriate manner and degrading the value of INA, believes Panenić.

He also expressed a desire for Hernádi to “come to us and explain how he plans to introduce a market model in INA, if the current one is already referred to as a planned economy” and to explain why INA has not been approached as a vertically integrated company so far.

He adds that all announced investments in INA have been absent and that INA’s distribution network has been significantly reduced.

– Therefore, it would be very interesting for him to come and clarify this, and I believe there would be inquiries from our institutions that care about the rule of law functioning, said Panenić.

He added that from Hernádi’s position in Hungary, it is simply easy to talk, as he does not share the fate of INA, its workers, or Croatia, in whose energy strategy INA is defined as one of the key energy systems.

We remind you that MOL CEO Zsolt Hernádi, in an interview with the leading Hungarian web portal Origo.hu, on the occasion of the long-term business strategy of MOL adopted last week, stated, among other things, that the MOL Group will follow its business path and plans with or without INA.