BELGRADE – Ranko Mimović, an owner of a recently founded Serbian company, told Reuters that he has offered 2 billion euros to Russia’s Gazprom Neft and Gazprom for their combined 56.1% stake in Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS), which operates Serbia’s only oil refinery. According to Mimović, the bid had been “generally accepted” by the Russian owners of NIS.
On the other hand, Gazprom Neft stated that it was readying its stake sale in NIS to the Hungarian company MOL.
“Gazprom Neft is actively preparing to sell its stake in NIS to the Hungarian company MOL. The necessary corporate and regulatory procedures are currently underway. The company is not conducting any other negotiations on this matter”, it said.
Reuters reported that the company called “KFT Senator Treasury G.T.7 Two LLC (Senator)” was founded by Mimović in the summer of 2025.
Ranko Mimovic also said that he had informed the Cabinet of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić about the plan of his company. Vučić’s cabinet did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on NIS as part of wider measures targeting Russia’s energy sector over the war in Ukraine. It demanded the divestment of the NIS shares owned by Gazprom Neft and Gazprom, its Russian majority owners, Reuters reminded.
Russian owners currently hold a 56.15% stake in NIS, of which 44.85% is owned by Gazprom Neft. The Serbian state has so far held a 29.9% stake.
On 19 January 2026, Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Đedović Handanović announced that Hungarian MOL and Russia’s Gazprom Neft have agreed on the key terms of a future sale and purchase agreement for NIS. According to Đedović Handanović, Serbia has managed to increase its ownership stake by five per cent through negotiations.
OFAC extended the licensing for negotiations on this sale until 22 May, 2026. Despite sanctions and operating under temporary American licenses in early 2026, NIS remains operational, though with reduced refining capacity compared to previous periods.
Mimović is connected to numerous defunct companies and has faced legal issues, media outlets claim
Ranko Mimović, who is interested in buying a Russian stake in NIS through his company, has had several business ventures in the region in previous years, and in Slovenia he faced several criminal trials, writes Nedeljnik.rs.
According to the media reports, Mimović was the owner of the Slovenian road company “Cestno podjetje Ljubljana” (CPL). The company went into bankruptcy, and he was sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of nearly 100,000 euros. At that time, Ranko Mimović pleaded guilty to fraud worth 2.2 million euros before the court.
The indictment charged him and the former CPL director with extracting money from subcontractors by claiming that the money would “save CPL”.
In addition, in 2017, Ranko Mimović was first sentenced to 12 years in prison for additional fraud and money laundering, but the judgment was overturned and returned for a re-ruling, Nedeljnik states.
According to Forbes Serbia, Mimović is connected to at least nine companies registered in Serbia – eight of which no longer operate, while one has a temporary tax identification number (PIB) taken away, and the other has an account blocked.
“The records show that he was or still is the owner (i.e. the majority owner) of KFT Treasury G.T.7, KFT Treasury G.T.7 one, KFT Treasury G.T.7 two, FIA Energy, FIA Aqua, FIA Electricity, FIA oil, RM Capital, Eco fruit producer product. As can be seen from the data, companies that bear the common name Kft Senator Treasury were established for the business of unnamed financial services, except for insurance and pension funds”, the article notes.
Forbes stresses that “the companies that bear the name FIA are much closer to the energy business”, including the distribution of gaseous fuels by pipeline.
