Slovakia's monopoly gas utility SPP said it wanted to raise its stake in the gas storage firm Nafta Gbely to 51% from the current 10%, the daily Narodna Obroda said December 3.
"SPP wants to raise its stake in Nafta from 10% to 51% within half a year," SPP's Investment Director Jan Kasper said. Kasper said SPP was interested in acquiring the stake to meet its gas storage needs. "SPP needs to continually store some two billion cubic metres of natural gas. At the moment, it is using a tank with a 1.2 billion cubic metre capacity," he said.
Kasper did not specify how SPP would acquire the extra stake, but said the share of the state privatisation agency, the FNM, would fall to 34% from 45.9%.
The FNM re-acquired its stake in Nafta after months of wrangling with the company's former owners who had bought the stake in 1996 at prices the current government considered unfair.
Other shareholders of Nafta include Chase Nominees with 12% and VÚB bank with 7%.
