Gazprom Neft subsidiary in Serbia boosts stake in HIP-Petrohemija from 21% to 90%

MOSCOW. Dec 24 (Interfax) - Serbia's NIS (a joint asset of Gazprom Neft and the Serbian government), the Serbian government and HIP-Petrohemija, Serbia's largest producer of petrochemicals, have signed an agreement on strategic partnership, Gazprom Neft said.

According to the document, NIS will increase its share in the capital of HIP-Petrohemija from 20.86% to 90%. The decision was made following a tender by the Serbian government to find a partner for the company.

The agreement provides for additional capitalization of 150 million euros by NIS and construction of a high-tech polypropylene production complex with a capacity of 140,000 tonnes. Plans also call for modernizing HIP-Petrohemija's main production facilities and implementing projects to improve the energy efficiency of production and delivering environmental solutions.

It was reported earlier that only NIS showed interest in privatizing HIP-Petrohemija. NIS and HIP-Petrohemija provide services to each other and supply each other with products.

Almost 10 years ago, the Gazprom Neft board of directors approved the acquisition by NIS, a Serbian subsidiary, of a stake in the petrochemical company Petrohemija (HIP-Petrohemija). It was envisaged that the amount of the transaction would be no more than 67.398 million euros through the conversion of receivables into share capital.

NIS is one of the largest energy companies in Southeast Europe. Gazprom Neft's investments in the company in 2009-2020 amounted to more than 3 billion euros. The NIS refinery in Pancevo provides 99% oil refining and is one of the most modern refineries in Europe. Gazprom Neft plans to invest another 1 billion euros into the development of NIS through 2025.