Mimovic Offers 2 Billion Euros for NIS, Talks JANAF

Two billion euros: that is the sum businessman Ranko Mimovic says he has secured to buy out the 56.15 percent stake in Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) currently held by Russia’s Gazprom. The director and owner of the Subotica-based company “KFT Senator Treasury G.T.7 Dva” tied that figure to a concrete deadline for the first time on August 28: if the talks between Gazprom and Hungary’s MOL fall through, his team is ready to start its own negotiations as early as Monday, August 31.

Mimovic told Beta that he already held his first conversation ten days earlier with the company that would become NIS’s key partner for crude supply under that scenario.

“I spoke on August 18 with JANAF Management Board President Stjepan Adanic about the next steps in crude oil deliveries to the refinery in Pancevo,” Mimovic told Beta.

The Croatian pipeline operator JANAF is the infrastructure through which crude oil reaches NIS’s refinery in Pancevo, and that route has grown in importance since NIS, because of Gazprom’s ownership, has been under U.S. sanctions and faced restricted access to Russian crude. Besides Adanic, JANAF’s Management Board also includes members Vladislav Veselica and Ivan Barbaric.

Why Is August 28 the Turning Date?

The date of the conversation is no coincidence. Three documents tied to NIS expire that same day: JANAF’s license to transport oil to Pancevo, NIS’s own operating license, and the license that allows MOL to negotiate with Gazprom over buying the stake. Mimovic said he supports the expected extension of NIS’s operating license, meaning a scenario in which the company keeps running while its ownership structure changes.

Behind the two-billion-euro offer sits a formal step taken ten months ago. “KFT Senator Treasury G.T.7 Dva” filed an application on October 30, 2025 with the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for a special license to acquire majority ownership of NIS. Without that license, a transaction involving sanctioned assets is not feasible, no matter how ready the buyer’s capital is.

If the scenario plays out, the loser is Gazprom, which would exit Serbia’s largest oil company after nearly two decades of ownership. The winner, according to Mimovic, would be NIS itself: a more stable supply route to the Adriatic instead of dependence on Russian crude flowing through sanctioned channels. Mimovic claims his team could close the takeover talks within a month, meaning by the end of September, if the MOL scenario falls apart.

The Hungarian company MOL’s offer has so far been the main path for Gazprom’s exit from NIS. Srpske Novine reported a week ago that NIS’s license is expiring and that President Aleksandar Vucic has announced a resolution is coming in September. Mimovic’s move introduces a second serious contender into a story that until now had only one, shifting the question from whether NIS will get a new owner to which of the two bidders JANAF and OFAC will accept as a partner.

For now, only a conversation is confirmed, not a deal: Mimovic has stated his intent and his deadline, and JANAF has not issued its own statement on what was discussed at the meeting. The next check comes Monday, August 31, when, according to Mimovic’s announcement, his negotiations should begin, provided Gazprom and MOL have not sealed a deal by then. The deadline he has set for himself means the first signal, whether JANAF is even seriously considering working with a new owner, could arrive before September officially begins.