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| UPDATE 2-Russia's Surgut buys 21% of Hungary's MOL from OMV |
| Moscow/Berlin, 30.03.2009 |
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| By Melissa Akin and Christian Goetz
MOSCOW/BERLIN, Mar 30 (Reuters) - Reclusive, cash-rich Russian oil firm Surgutneftegaz (News) made its first move on foreign markets on Monday, getting a foothold in eastern Europe with a surprise deal to buy 21 percent of Hungarian oil group MOL. (News)
Austrian energy firm OMV (News) said it would sell its 21.2 percent stake in MOL to Surgut, Russia's fourth-biggest oil producer, for 1.4 billion euros ($1.88 billion), which equates to 19,212 forints ($84.95) per share, more than double Friday's prevailing market price of 9,940 forints.
Trading in MOL's shares was suspended before the market opened in Budapest on Monday.
It was an unexpected move by a Russian oil company which had not shown any foreign ambitions while other Russian oil and mining giants, encouraged by the state, deployed the proceeds of the commodities boom to buy companies around the world.
'This is extremely out of character with Surgut's management. In the past they have been extremely reluctant to acquire assets abroad, especially minority stakes in a foreign refiner,' said Ron Smith, head of research at Alfa Bank.
'I would love to hire that salesman, given the fact that they (OMV) sold a minority stake in a foreign refiner to Surgut at double the market price,' said Smith.
Surgut, a company seen as loyal to the state, has invested little of an accumulated cash pile thought to stand at $19 billion at the end of September 2008.
Another non-state oil company, LUKOIL, has refining assets in Romania and Bulgaria, and carried the flag into Western Europe last year with a deal to buy into Italian oil refiner ERG. It backed away from the potential acquisition of Spain's Repsol.
The acquisition of a stake in MOL, whose interests are concentrated in Hungary and Slovakia, by a Russian company expands Russian influence in consumer countries hard hit by gas cuts in Russia's winter row with Ukraine over gas pricing.
Amid calls for Europe to diversify its gas supply away from Russia, which supplies a quarter of Europe's gas and will ship up to 33 percent by 2020, Russia this month won support from Hungary for its new South Stream gas pipeline that would bypass Ukraine.
Surgut echoed the government's assertions that more co-operation with Russia would mean greater energy security for Europeans.
'The purchase of a stake in MOL is a serious basis for the start of long-term, mutually beneficial co-operation between our companies and will serve to strengthen European energy security,' Surgut's chief executive, Vladimir Bogdanov, said in a statement.
FOCUS ON FUELS
Surgut, which is a large exporter of crude and a mid-sized producer of gas, said the acquisition would help it move downstream, since MOL's strength is in refining and marketing.
Surgut has a foothold in Europe's market for refined fuels through exports from its giant Kirishi refinery, Russia's largest exporter of fuels, near the Baltic Sea coast outside St Petersburg.
'The acquisition of a stake in MOL is an important step toward fulfilment of Surgutneftegaz's strategy to strengthen vertical integration and achieve maximum proximity to end users,' Surgut said.
MOL operates a large modern refinery in Hungary, the 165,000 barrels-per-day Szazhalombatta plant, as well as the 60,000 barrels-per-day plant at Bratislava in Slovakia.
OMV will no longer hold MOL shares after the transaction is completed, the Austrian oil group said. OMV withdrew a takeover bid for MOL in August 2008 because of objections from the European Union and a rejection by the MOL board.
(Reporting by Christian Goetz in Berlin, Melissa Akin, Dmitry Zhdannikov and Tanya Mosolova in Moscow, and Balazs Koranyi in Budapest; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
odkaz na stránku |
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Address : Euro-Brew Ltd., Hlboká 22, 917 01 Trnava, Slovakia
Tel. : +421 33 53 418 53, Fax : +421 33 53 418 52, E-mail : info@eurobrew.sk |
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