Hungarian energy group MOL has agreed to purchase the Russian stake in the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) for around €1.4 billion, the Hungarian newspaper Népszava reported.
The outlet cited a person familiar with the matter for this information, while MOL declined to comment to Népszava, Bloomberg reported, according to Bloomberg Adria.
The news came a few days after Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said that the Russian stake of 56.15 per cent in NIS, which MOL plans to buy, is worth between €900 million and €1 billion.
“We were prepared to set aside €2 billion to pay. Even to pay more than that,” Vučić recalled in a statement on Monday.
A separate memorandum of understanding signed by Serbia with MOL envisages the state increasing its ownership stake in NIS by five per cent (it currently stands at just under 30 per cent of shares), with confirmation that Serbia would acquire that five per cent from MOL’s stake.
At the same time, the Arab Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is expected to become involved, as MOL stated in its announcement (in which it confirmed that it had signed the key provisions of a binding framework agreement with Gazprom Neft) that it is in talks with ADNOC “regarding its entry into NIS’s ownership structure as a minority shareholder, while MOL retains majority ownership and management rights”. The size of that minority stake has not been specified, but it is speculated to be around five to six per cent, Bloomberg Adria writes.
Meanwhile, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has extended NIS’s operating licence until 20 February, while the licence for negotiations on the exit of Russian capital from the ownership structure expires on 24 March. According to previous announcements by officials, MOL is expected to officially take over NIS by mid-March.
From the beginning of the year to date, MOL’s shares have risen by around 30 per cent.
(Biznis.rs, 28.01.2026)