Hungary's MOL Group "categorically rejects the nationalistic comments" of some board members of the Croatian oil and gas company INA, saying in a statement on Thursday that everyone's sole interest was a successful and efficient INA and that MOL was always open for talks on INA's further development.
INA said investments were crucial for its development, as was dialogue with the Croatian government as both shareholder and regulator.
"MOL Group categorically rejects the nationalistic comments of some INA board members. There are no Hungarians nor Croatians in INA. Only people working for INA's benefit," said MOL, which holds a 49.1 per stake in INA.
"We do not quite understand the turmoil raised in the last couple of days in the media. INA is on the right developing track, it brings positive results despite the external challenges it faces today," said the statement.
MOL said that if one took a look at what INA had become in the last ten years, one could "easily see that it changed for the better. Since MOL joined INA the yearly average investments in INA were more than doubled. This means that five times more investments were made into Refining per year, HRK 14bn was spent on strategic Exploration & Production investments and twice as much was invested into the filling stations too. INA creates value and contributes positively to Croatia's GDP," MOL said.
"And we achieved it together. The numbers show that in more than 99% of the cases unanimous decisions were brought at INA's boards' meetings. In other words, all the members voted for the same cause. The one and only interest of all of us is a successful and efficient INA. What we want is to be a part of the solution, not the problem. We have always been open to negotiations on further development of INA aiming to make the company even stronger and respected the requests of the other major shareholder, just like we did by intensifying the modernization of the filling station network and preparing the next significant investment cycle in the Rijeka refinery," MOL said.
Asked about the criticism of how INA was run by Croatian Finance Minister Slavko Linic earlier today, INA said that despite the economic crisis, it was a successful company with good business results and that pursuing such results should be the primary goal of everyone responsible for the company's work.
INA said it agreed with Linic's statement and that it was pleased that its efforts to modernise the retail network were being recognised.
