Austrian oil and gas company OMV AG (OMV.VI) remains committed to its intention of taking over Hungarian peer MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU) it said late Wednesday, following a discouraging MOL annual meeting.
At the AGM, shareholders approved resolutions to further strengthen MOL's management board and allowing it to repurchase up to 25% of own share in the next 18 months.
"This doesn't change anything from our perspective. The plans remain unchanged. We remain committed to our stated intention of taking over MOL," OMV spokesman Thomas Huemer told Dow Jones Newswires.
Since OMV in June 2007 declared its intention of placing a HUF32,000 per share takeover offer for MOL, provided certain technical hurdles are removed, MOL's management has fought to fend off the Austrian company, among others through an extensive share buyback program and strategic treasury shares sales to third parties. MOL has regained control of some estimated 44% of its own shares, a large part of which have been lend to friendly entities to enable MOL to comply with a 10% limit to own-held stake.
MOL's management Wednesday expressed confidence that the company will continue as an independent entity also in the future.
The shareholders support the company's corporate strategy and vision of the future, one of the company's two chief executive officers, Gyorgy Mosonyi, said Wednesday during MOL's annual general meeting. He called the resolution granting MOL the right to hold up to 25% of its own shares "very important", saying, "As one of our shareholders holds a stake of over 20% in MOL, and in case of the sale of this package, MOL wants to protect shareholders from a potential plunge in the share price."
At a news conference after the AGM, MOL's second Chief Executive Zsolt Hernadi directly said, "OMV could decide to sell all its stake (in MOL) or parts of it."
Asked Wednesday, Thomas Huemer, however, rejected the idea of a stake sale.