NIS and MOL: Mali Meant June Shareholder Agreement
The Finance Ministry says Sinisa Mali was referring to the June shareholder agreement, while MOL Serbia says nothing has changed that would require notifying the capital market.
The Finance Ministry has clarified that Sinisa Mali, the caretaker finance minister, was talking about the June shareholder agreement between the Serbian government and the MOL group when he told TV Bloomberg Adria on October 21 that the contract for the sale of NIS had been signed. The ministry gave the clarification to the portal N1, which added a note to its original story at 12:55 p.m. MOL Serbia, answering media inquiries, says there has been no change in the transaction that would require it to notify the capital market. A signed purchase agreement between MOL and Gazprom Neft was not confirmed in those answers.
What did Mali tell Bloomberg Adria?
In the interview, Mali said the negotiations between NIS’s current Russian owners and Hungary’s MOL had been completed successfully. According to N1, he said this:
“An agreement between the Russian side, which is the majority owner, and Hungary’s MOL has been reached. The contract has been signed. We, as a state, have also made a shareholder agreement with the Hungarian side. What remains is to obtain the approvals of the competent antitrust commissions.”
The minister added that he expects the applications to the commissions to be filed soon in Serbia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that the transaction will be completed “very quickly.” In other words, by his account, the approvals are still being sought. On the state’s stake, he said: “we have a written agreement with the Hungarians to increase our share from 30 to 35 percent,” because, as he explained, “we want to cross the threshold of one third of ownership.”
The statement came four days before the snap parliamentary elections scheduled for October 25, in which Mali is a candidate on the “Aleksandar Vucic - United Serbia” list.
How did the Finance Ministry and MOL respond?
The Finance Ministry explained, according to N1, that the minister had in mind the agreement that the MOL group and the Serbian government signed in June 2026. That document is a shareholder agreement, not a contract to buy the Russian stake.
N1 and Nedeljnik also approached MOL, and MOL Serbia answered both inquiries in the same words:
“There has been no change in relation to the transaction that would require us to notify the capital market. In the event of any new relevant developments, we will provide information without delay in accordance with applicable regulations.”
In that reply, MOL does not speak about signing a purchase agreement. It says only that there are no new circumstances it would have to report.
What was signed on June 17, 2026?
On June 17, 2026, the MOL group announced that it had signed a Shareholder Agreement with the Serbian government on the future governance of NIS. Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic then explained its scope:
“With today’s signing of the Shareholders’ Agreement, the arrangement of future relations between the state and Hungary’s MOL has been defined, should they buy NIS from Gazprom Neft. This agreement will enter into force only if MOL and Gazprom Neft agree on a purchase contract and the American Office of Foreign Assets Control approves it.”
Under that agreement, Serbia buys an additional 5% of NIS shares and raises its stake from 30 to 35%, crossing the threshold of one third of ownership. The Pancevo refinery is to operate for at least the next 10 years at the capacity it had four years before the American sanctions. Djedovic Handanovic also said this in June:
“The refinery will operate for a minimum of the next 10 years at the capacity at which it operated for four years before the introduction of American sanctions. The agreement also ensures that there will be no disruption in the operations of subsidiaries, including Petrochemicals. Our representatives on the Board of Directors will have greater influence on the decisions that are made. NIS is critical energy infrastructure that affects our GDP, and the state, as we have been saying for months, has managed to reach an agreement with Hungary’s MOL as a potential buyer of the Petroleum Industry of Serbia, with which we will protect our market and security of supply, if they reach an agreement with the Russians.”
Who owns NIS and what is left to do?
NIS’s ownership structure today looks like this:
- Gazprom Neft: 44.85%
- PJSC Intelligence: 11.30% (both firms are owned by Gazprom)
- Republic of Serbia: 29.87%
- Minority shareholders: 13.98%
American sanctions on NIS over its Russian ownership were announced in January 2025 and have applied since October of that year. The company then spent several months unable to import or refine oil. In early 2026 it received US approval to keep operating, which has been extended periodically for limited periods since.
Three steps remain before the transaction closes, according to the sources: an agreement between MOL and Gazprom Neft on the sale, approvals from the competition authorities in Serbia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the consent of the American OFAC. Only then does the June shareholder agreement take effect. In its reply, MOL said it would provide information without delay if there are new relevant developments.
