Serbia says NIS sale agreement with Hungary's MOL has been signed

An agreement to sell Serbian oil company NIS to Hungary's MOL has been signed, but regulatory approvals are still needed to complete the transaction, Serbia's Finance Ministry said.

Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said the agreement was signed between NIS's Russian owners and MOL, Blic reported. He said approval was awaited from competition authorities in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Serbian government and MOL previously signed a separate shareholders' agreement on NIS's governance. In announcing that agreement, the parties stressed that it did not itself complete the sale process.