MOL plans to purchase 600 million cubic meter of natural gas from Middle Asia for its own purposes, the company told the press yesterday. According to MOL, this would cost 10% less than buying Russian gas from Ruhrgas trade, which allows the company to save some HUF 5bn, press speculates.
According to our own calculations, the saving would unlikely be more than HUF 3-4bn, but still significant. The press also reports that MOL CEO Mr. Hernádi is going to visit Gazprom on Friday to talk about cooperation of the two companies, where this question could also be discussed.
Although the news is definitely positive, until signing the new purchase contract, we are reluctant to change our earnings forecasts. We keep our Buy recommendation on the stock, with a fair value estimate of HUF 29,412 per share.