"We want to cooperate and have a larger stake in INA. We paid US$500 million in the first stage of privatisation, and now we are prepared to invest further," Laszlo Geszti, a Hungarian representative on INA's Managing Board and executive finance director, told reporters in Zagreb.
Geszti said that MOL would like to enter into direct talks on the second stage of INA's privatisation. He did not rule out the possibility of the Croatian government offering INA's shares at a public auction, but said that it would be too early at the moment.
"INA is a good company, but its entry on the stock exchanges needs to be well prepared," Geszti said, estimating that that would take at least a year.
"All my information comes from the Croatian press. I do not know if the talks have started," he said in response to a reporter's question if talks with the Croatian government had already begun.
Geszti repeated several times that MOL was abiding by the Law on the Privatisation of INA.
Towards the end of March, some Croatian media reported that by amending the Law on the Privatisation of INA the government might give up the sale of 15 per cent of INA's shares on the stock exchange and instead sell the block of shares to an investor, most probably MOL.
The Hungarian company became INA's strategic partner in November 2003 by purchasing 25 per cent plus one share in the Croatian firm for US$505 million.