Hungary did not have the power to thwart Surgut acquisition of MOL shares - PM

http://www.portfolio.hu/en/cikkek.td...

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 04:13:00 PM

It was beyond the government's power to obstruct the quick and unexpected purchase of a shareholding by Russia's Surgut in Hungarian fuels group MOL, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai said on Wednesday.

Bajnai said he asked the Chancellor of Austria during his visit to Vienna on Tuesday whether he had had any prior knowledge of the transactions, but Werner Faymann said he had had not, local newswire MTI reported.

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The transaction went down swiftly and the Hungarian government had not officially learned about it beforehand, Bajnai told a press conference on Wednesday, answering a question.

“[...] at most we could only sense what was in the making," he said, adding the deal was carried out with unexpected speed, at a surprising price and premium.

“It's an odd and extraordinary transaction, which - as far as I'm concerned - the Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (PSZÁF) is also investigating," Bajnai underlined.

Surgutneftegas, one of Russia's least transparent companies, bought a 21.2% stake from Austria's OMV last month for EUR 1.4 billion.

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