The Hungarian Energy Office (MEH) has replied to Russian oil and gas company Surgutneftegas regarding a request to withdraw a decree that ended the process to include Surgutneftegas in Hungarian peer MOL’s share registry, MEH directorate head Csaba Vigassy told MTI on Monday.
Mr Vigassy declined to reveal the contents of the letter before it was received by Surgutneftegas.
Surgutneftegas acquired a 21.1pc stake in MOL from Austrian peer OMV for EUR 1.4bn in March 2009. MOL’s management called the deal unfriendly and Hungary’s then prime minister expressed concern about the transaction.
Surgutneftegas could not vote at MOL’s AGM in 2009 because MEH had not yet acknowledged the MOL share purchase.
Mr Vigassy stressed that MEH had not blocked Surgutneftegas’s inclusion in MOL’s share registry, rather it had asked the Russian company to provide it with further necessary documents. Because Surgutneftegas failed to supply these papers, MEH neither approved nor rejected the recording of the stake in the registry, but only ended the approval procedure, he added.
Surgutneftegas filed a case with the Budapest Municipal Court in April, 2010 requesting decisions at the AGM be annulled. The court will hear the first arguments in the case on December 3.