Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said Hungary's MOL signed a contract to acquire the Russian majority stake in Serbia's national oil company NIS, with regulatory approvals still needed before the transaction can be completed.
Oglas
Mali told Bloomberg Adria that the remaining approvals were expected from competition authorities in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, after which the change in ownership could be formally completed.
The transaction also requires approval from the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which imposed sanctions on NIS because of its Russian ownership. The deal is intended to resolve the ownership issue that has kept the Serbian oil company under sanctions pressure.
Mali said Serbia had also reached a written agreement with MOL to increase its stake in NIS from 30 to 35 percent. Russia's Gazprom Neft and Gazprom currently hold a combined stake of about 56.15 percent.
Teme