Slovakia's prime minister Robert Fico has upset foreign shareholders in the national gas transporter, Slovensky Plynarensky Premysel, just four years after the minority stake was sold.rnHe said October 17 that the government would prepare an offer to buy out the French and German companies after SPP repeatedly tried to push through double-digit hikes in residential gas prices. Fico told a special briefing that his government would offer the consortium of E.ON Ruhrgas and GDF-Suez some 123 billion Slovak crowns, around €4.08 billion or $5.5 billion, which is what they paid for the 49.0% stake and management control of the company when it was sold by the previous government in 2004. A state holding company owns the remaining 51% stake. But the two are not happy with this, as they saw the investment as a long-term deal.
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