After weeks of speculation in the Croatian press about changes to a shareholders agreement between Hungarian oil and gas company MOL and the Croatian government on their shared ownership of Croatia’s INA, as well as reports MOL’s CEO was suspected of bribing former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader to gain influence in the company, MOL told its side of the story on Wednesday in an open letter published in Croatian dailies.
The letter to the citizens of Croatia, signed by MOL’s board of directors, is entitled “The Real Story”, said business.hr, the internet edition of a business daily.
MOL called the speculation in the local media in the previous weeks “baseless attacks” and said the accusations of bribery were “like science fiction”.
MOL said the Croatian government had taken the right decision in 2003, when it picked MOL, the highest bidder, as a strategic partner in INA. In 2008, when INA was in a “dramatic liquidity situation”, MOL said it was the only one capable of offering the company the necessary financial and operating assistance.
In order to pull through the crisis and to ensure INA more loans, MOL had to take over management rights at the company, otherwise it could not have accepted accountability, MOL said.
MOL said it had spent an annual 3.9 billion Croatian kunas on investments at INA in the past years, well over the 1.1 billion kunas in capital expenditures before. INA’s mid-term strategy outlines CAPEX of 20 billion kunas by 2015, of which two-thirds will be made in Croatia, it added.
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