October 02, 2007	Tuesday	Ramazan 19, 1428

VIENNA, Oct 1: Austrian Economy Minister Martin Bartenstein and shareholders in Hungarian oil group MOL all turned up the pressure on Monday on Hungarian oil group MOL to accept a multi-billion-euro tie-up with its Austrian counterpart OMV.

In an interview published in the Financial Times Deutschland, Bartenstein urged MOL to drop its resistance to a deal and content itself with a blocking minority in the merged group instead.

“That would allow the Hungarian government to ensure politically that it doesn’t come to a takeover of MOL by OMV, but that it really is a merger of equals,” the minister said.Last week, state-controlled OMV said it was ready to pay 128 euros per share in cash to MOL shareholders, in a 14-billion-euro ($20bn) to create a new European giant.

But the offer was swiftly rejected a hostile takeover move by MOL management and the Hungarian government, which is concerned that Hungarian strategic interests will fall into foreign hands.

Nevertheless, key shareholders in MOL signalled they were in favour of a merger.

“We’re for a merger and want the management of both companies to enter into talks,” the head of US-based hedge fund Templeton, Mark Mobius, was quoted in the Austrian daily Der Standard as saying on Monday.

Templeton holds equal stakes in both OMV and MOL, but because they are below the five per cent disclosure threshold, the exact size of the shareholdings is not known. —AFP