Media: Buy-Out of NIS Most Realistic Solution

Oil and gas company NIS (Photo: NIS)

The problem with Serbia’s oil company NIS caused by U.S. sanctions should be resolved by the New Year, and the most realistic option is for the state to buy a 11.3 percent stake in the company currently held by the Intelligence company, which is de facto a subsidiary of Russia’s Gazprom.

According to the NIN weekly, which cited unnamed sources, since the Russian Intelligence and Gazprom Neft companies currently own 56.15 percent of NIS (11.3 and 44.85 percent, respectively), the transaction would render Serbia and minor shareholders the majority owners.

The Russian side had opposed this model in previous months, but it seems that it has yielded and accepted it, on condition that Gazprom’s Intelligence maintains one share, and that the sales contract contains a clause giving Russians the preemptive right to buy the stakes back, once the situation calms down and sanctions against Russian companies are lifted.

The New Year as the deadline for the final solution of the problem coincides with the reserves of oil and derivatives of Serbia and NIS, and in this way there would be no consequences for the operation of the Pancevo refinery nor for the normal supply of the market, NIN reported.