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Hungarian watchdog says probes MOL stake sale

BUDAPEST, April 3 (Reuters) - Hungary's financial markets watchdog PSZAF will investigate the sale of a stake in Hungarian oil group MOL MOLB.BU by Austria's OMV OMVV.VI to Russia's SurgutneftegazSNGS.MM, a PSZAF spokesman said on Friday.

The watchdog has launched its probe at MOL’s request, its spokesman Istvan Binder said.

The spokesman said the regulator would look into whether the deal breached Hungary’s capital market law. He declined to predict when the investigation will end.

Oil producer Surgutneftegaz said on Monday that it would buy 21 percent of MOL from OMV for 1.4 billion euros, or nearly twice MOL’s trading price on the Budapest bourse on the previous Friday.

Both Hungary’s government and opposition said they supported MOL’s independence.

Reporting by Sandor Peto; Editing by Erica Billingham

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