The Financial Market Office (UFT), the financial market regulatory authority in Slovakia, is again examining the proposed public takeover bid for Slovnaft shares submitted by Slovnaft’s majority shareholder, Hungarian oil company MOL. By its decision of June 25, the UFT Council has overruled the initial decision of the office from April 8, in which UFT turned down MOL’s draft plan for the public takeover bid. The UFT Council therefore returned the case for revision in the first instance, UFT spokesman Marek Kacmar informed SITA.

In April UFT turned down MOL’s price proposal in the public takeover bid because of a discrepancy with the law on securities and investment services, regulating price terms in takeover bids. According to the law, the share price in a public takeover bid cannot be lower than the average price for which the shares were traded on the stock exchange in the past six months before acquiring voting rights in the company that should be taken over.

MOL, in calculating the average price, did not take into account a Bratislava Stock Exchange (BCPB) transaction from March 20, when 202,000 shares of Slovakia’s largest crude oil refinery Slovnaft were transferred at a price of SKK 1,541. This deal increased the average price of Slovnaft shares for the past six months from SKK 1,100 to SKK 1,380. The average price is decisive for setting the price MOL must pay to minority shareholders for Slovnaft shares in the takeover bid.

MOL announced that it could offer the minority shareholders SKK 1,200 per share. MOL believed that the transaction was an attempted price manipulation of Slovnaft shares. Financial company J&T represented the seller in the transactions while the name of the buyer is unknown. MOL has appealed against the UFT’s decision from April.