INA said yesterday that its bid for the purchase of a 33% interest in Energopetrol had been accepted by one shareholder. The price offered was about EUR 2.1 million.
INA holds a 67% stake in Energopetrol. The remaining shares are held by the Federation government (22.12%) and small shareholders (10.88%).
Suvad Osmanagic, an advisor to the Federation prime minister, said INA's offer was unacceptable. "We have already said that we don't want to sell our stake at such a low price. The remaining small shareholders don't either... What INA has done is really pathetic."
The Federation government sold a controlling stake in Energopetrol to the INA-MOL consortium in 2006. In July this year, INA and MOL signed a contract whereby INA took over the 33.5% of Energopetrol's shares owned by MOL, thus increasing its stake to 67% and becoming the company's majority owner.