An agreement has been reached between the Russian owners of Naftna Industrija Srbije and Hungary’s MOL, and the contract has been signed, according to Siniša Mali, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Serbia.
The Russian owners of Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) are Gazprom Neft with 44.85% of shares and PJSC Intelligence with 11.30%. Both companies are owned by Gazprom. The remainder of the shares is held by the Government of Serbia (29.87%) and minority shareholders (13.98%).
In an interview with Bloomberg Adria, Siniša Mali said that the negotiations between the Russian owners of NIS and the Hungarian company MOL were successfully concluded, and noted that the Government of Serbia and the future majority owner earlier signed a shareholders’ agreement, Politika reported.
The final step is to obtainin approvals from the competent antimonopoly commissions
Of note, the agreement between the government and MOl was signed in mid-June.
The agreement between the Russian side, which is the majority owner of NIS, and Hungary’s MOL has been reached, Mali stressed. He added that the contract was signed. The final step is to obtainin approvals from the competent antimonopoly commissions, Mali pointed out.
He expects that the requests for the approval will soon be submitted in Serbia and, probably, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that the transaction will be completed very quickly.
The contract will be formally closed after obtaining necessary regulatory approvals
After obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals, the formal closing of the contract will follow, concluding the procedure of changing the ownership structure of the largest oil company in Serbia, he said.
The minister noted that Serbia had already signed an agreement with its Hungarian partners to increase the state’s stake in NIS to 35%.
It means Serbia would cross the ownership threshold in NIS of one third, which, as he explained, is one of the government’s goals in the process of changing the company’s ownership structure.
Sanctions initiated negotiations
The negotiations between the Russian and Hungarian sides were initiated by US sanctions against NIS, imposed because of the Russian ownership.
The sanctions were announced in January 2025, then postponed, and they came into force in October.
For several months, NIS was unable to import and refine oil, and then at the beginning of 2026 it received a licence from the OFAC to continue operating. The licence, issued partly because the negotiations on the sale of NIS had begun, has since been repeatedly extended for limited periods.