Croatian regulator Hanfa on Monday said it would continue to block trading in INA Industrija Nafte d.d., saying Mol has not sufficiently explained its trading activities. Mol said in an e-mailed statement today that the decision is biased because trading by Croatian domestic investors has not been examined.
Hanfa suspended INA trading four times in the last two months, citing suspicious trading activities. Tensions between Budapest-based Mol and Croatian authorities increased after the Hungarian company made an offer to purchase the outstanding shares in INA in December. The government claimed it wasn’t notified of Mol’s intention before the offer. Mol has a 47.26% stake in INA and the government in Zagreb holds 44.84%.
“Over two-thirds of the trading with INA shares between December and April have been made by domestic institutional investors, which have never been subject of any Hanfa scrutiny,” Mol said. “Mol must underline that such reasoning is both discriminative and biased against foreign investors who provide continuous capital inflow into the Croatian economy.”
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