We have therefore chosen to redeem shares

In an interview given to the "Echos", last Friday in Budapest, Gyorgy Mosonyi, one of the principal leaders of the Hungarian oil company Mol, explains what his battle against the tender offer (OPA) hostile of the Austrian OMV. The group, which is worth 15 billion euros on the stock market, says confident that a merger with OMV would result in as much or even more losses than gains, and the European Commission, called to investigate the case, will not only see. Furthermore, he announces negotiate with 8 countries of the region to unite into a single company their national high-pressure gas transmission networks, secure their gas supplies.

The Austrian OMV notified Friday in Brussels its intention to take control of your company to be a "European champion" of energy. What do you think

This initiative will give to the European Commission the opportunity to study in detail the OPA and we will be delighted to work with it. We are confident: their experts will realize that the losses generated by this merger, which should result in a decrease of 300 million to 400 million euros of our operating income, would be at least equivalent to its gains. A union would create a monopoly in Austria, Hungary and Slovakia. And we would be forced to sell part of our refining.

Has the OPA surprised you

Yes. This is four years that they proposed a merge and that we reject their offer. We have repeated that this union was a bad idea. We have then offered them several collaborative projects in third countries. But their only desire was a complete merger. OMV is in a good position in his country of origin and its leaders thought that buy their single competitor in Eastern Europe would be the best way to develop. But it does not grow in killing his rivals. The Austria wants to create a regional monopoly. Talented patterns can sometimes lose the sense of realities...

The Hungarian Government created legislation, dubbed the "Mol Act", to help protect against this OPA. The European Commission must consider this very criticized text. Do you understand his reluctance

I am not surprised of this reaction. Brussels is sensitive to the laws that aim to restrict the movement of capital. But this text was not developed for Mol. Its purpose is to protect the Hungarian capital market. For a long time, the Government has encouraged hostile Takeovers of foreign groups. In recent years, 42 listed companies left the Budapest Stock Exchange after having been purchased. The State now realizes that the disappearance of the local stock market would have significant impacts on the national economy. Companies would have great difficulty in raising capital. And we represent, we only 35 of the Budapest Stock Exchange. It is easy for OMV to say that the new law was made just for Mol, but this is not the truth.

You have recently invested in the purchase of your actions. Is this strategy only to thwart OMV, which controls 21 of your capital

Yes and no. Our external growth strategy has been recently slowed by the rise of the barrel that caused an explosion in the price of possible prey and the birth of a certain energy nationalism in many countries. We were thus sitting on a mountain of 2 billion euros of liquidity and our shareholders put us pressure so we use it. We have therefore chosen to redeem shares. This operation was aimed at the same time to protect us against OMV wanted to take our control by dubious means, using third parties such as the richest man of Hungary, Megdet Rakhimkulov, a former Russian Gazprom framework. It was to buy our titles without having to declare it.

Another way to defend yourself was to yield 7 of your capital to the Czech CEZ, the largest producer of electricity in Eastern Europe...

This sale is only the result of a much more ambitious strategic alliance. We have thus decided to build 50-50 two generating stations of 800 megawatts each near our refineries in Hungary and Slovakia. We will also explore the possibility of develop us in other countries such as Croatia. This partnership is not the consequence of the offer to purchase of OMV. We began to discuss more than eighteen months ago.

You multiply the alliances for a few months. What are the reasons

Organically, we almost develop in view of our current size. We axons then all our efforts on external growth. We seek to obtain new concessions for exploration in the Middle East, the Commonwealth of independent States and West Africa. We also have to sign a partnership with the Indian oil company ONGC for exploration. And we have very good contacts with Chinese companies for work in third countries. We also acquire small listed companies in the oil and gas production. These highly profitable companies go under the radar of the major groups.

You recently signed an agreement to connect your different pipelines with Ukrainian and Romanian companies. Why such a decision

Gas supply is very important in Eastern Europe. We can buy oil on world markets, but our gas, we depend on the Russia. Several countries are entirely dependent on a single pipeline. In binders to each other, we can help each other. But we would like to go further and we have proposed to the 8 countries of the region to unite into a single company their national high-pressure gas transmission networks. Most of these companies are public and the States do not have enough money to invest in new infrastructure. Together, we post a beautiful balance sheet which would enable us to more easily borrow money. Bilateral discussions in this direction already held and the first reactions were very positive. We will take all our first meeting at the end of the month to make progress on this project, which remains complicated, because he seeks the approval of the authorities of the competition, Governments and the private shareholders.

The Russia does not attempt to prevent this alliance

We face no pressure on their part.