MOL Scraps Plans for Extraordinary INA Dividend on Oil Price Drop

Hungary's MOL said on Tuesday falling oil prices have prompted it to backtrack on plans to seek the payment of extraordinary dividend from jointly-owned Croatian oil and gas company INA.

The Hungarian oil and gas group owns 49.08% of INA and the Croatian government controls a further 44.84%. In September 2013, the two sides launched talks to renegotiate the terms for the company's management.

In November, MOL proposed a shareholder meeting to vote on the payment of 2.0 billion kuna ($294 million/260 million euro) in dividend from retained earnings.

"[..] due to the falling oil price and its potential negative effect on INA, MOL as a responsible shareholder has suspended its request to convoke an extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders of INA with the agenda of extraordinary payout of dividends,” MOL said in a statement.

INA has exploration and production operations in Croatia, Africa and the Middle East and operates a filling station network on its home market and in neighboring countries.

Source: SeeNews