Hungary: MFB to Transfer South Stream Stake in Days

Hungarian state-run bank MFB has said that it expects to transfer its 50 per cent stake in South Stream Hungary to MVM within a matter of days.

Speaking at a conference in Budapest today, Chief Executive of MFB Laszlo Baranyay, said that a deal to transfer the bank's stake to state-owned energy group MVM was imminent.

"Hopefully the deal will be concluded in the coming days," the Dow Jones news agency reports him as saying.

The comments come after MVM was forced to defend the timing of the project, following criticisms earlier this month. Last week, the company said there was no issue, either on its part or on the part of Gazprom, which holds the other 50 per cent stake in the Hungarian South Stream section, with the progress of the transfer of the project. 

"Negotiations about the MFB-MVM transaction in Deli Aramlat Zrt. [the project company for Hungary] are in progress and are moving along adequately," MVM told the Dow Jones news agency earlier this month.

"The Hungarian deadlines aren't yet critical. I wouldn't say there were any problems," the news agency also reported Gazprom CEO Miller as saying.