Hungarian MOL Most Likely Buyer for NIS Shares

Gas station (Pixabay)

Intense negotiations regarding the partial sale of Serbia’s multinational oil and gas company Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) are currently under way, with Russia relying on Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban and plans for MOL Group to buy 11.3 percent of NIS shares, the NIN weekly has reported.

The magazine states that a meeting to hammer out specifics is set to happen mid-November, when a delegation from Russia will visit Budapest.

According to NIN, however, Russia – who is presently the majority owner of NIS – is not completely dependent on the deal with Hungary and is holding parallel talks with the United Arab Emirates.

Regardless, the Russian side believes that a clear sign of its gradual withdrawal from NIS ownership will be enough for the United States to suspend its sanctions against NIS next week, the article claimed.

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic said on Nov. 11 that Russia is discussing NIS’s managerial structure “with a third party” but that he cannot disclose any details.

Meanwhile, Serbian Mining and Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic announced that NIS’s Russian owners have petitioned the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control for an operation permit extension based on Russia’s negotiations with a third party.

The U.S. levied sanctions against NIS in January over Russia’s majority stake in the company, but the implementation of the measures had been postponed until Oct. 9, when they finally took effect.