MVM could
take a loan to buy the MOL stake, which is worth around 500 billion
forints
($2.6 billion), without boosting Hungary's public debt. Hungary's public
debt is already the biggest in
central and Eastern Europe.
The Hungarian National Development Ministry said last Thursday that
buying Surgut's stake would be
"one possible solution for the current, uncertain situation." The
sale of the Russian stake to MVM would create a more stable situation,
reassuring Hungary
that MOL isn't an acquisition target.
The ministry also said it intends to address wider energy sector issues
in its
negotiations with Russian counterparts, and the purchase price for the
MOL
stake could be lower than HUF500 billion, Nepszabadsag added.
Sources close to MVM told the daily that acquiring a stake in MOL
wouldn't be
unusual as Czech partly state-owned power firm CEZ already has a stake
in MOL.
Financing the MOL purchase and its share of the estimated EUR1 billion
Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania
Interconnector, or AGRI, project would hurt MVM's plans to expand the
country's
only nuclear plant Paksi Atomeromu Zrt., sources close to MVM told the
daily.