US offers to mediate in INA-MOL dispute

There have been five failed attempts at negotiations over the past 13 months between the Hungarian firm and Croatian authorities

Offers of US mediation and a possible further share purchase that leaves Hungarian energy firm MOL within a whisker of a majority shareholding in INA indicates a solution to the bitter dispute over ownership of the Croatian energy firm may be in sight. The past 13 months have seen five sets of failed negotiations between MOL and the Croatian authorities in an attempt to end of the dispute over who controls INA, in which the Hungarian firm holds 49.08% and the Croatian state 44.84%. The dispute became public in July when the Croatian authorities decided to try MOL's chief executive, Zsolt Hernadi, in absentia over allegations that he paid former Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader a bribe to