OMRI DAILY DIGEST
No. 234, 4 December 1995

EASTERN EUROPE'S FIRST GAS SUPPLIER SALE. The Hungarian privatization
agency (APV Rt.) on 29 November sold a majority stake in Tigaz, the
country's biggest gas supplier, to an Italian consortium, Hungarian
media reported. The sale is the first of its kind in Eastern Europe.
Italgas bought a 50% plus one vote stake in Tigaz for almost $172
million. Tigaz supplies 2.3 billion cubic meters of gas a year to more
than 800,000 consumers in northeastern Hungary and has registered
capital worth $116.2 million. Italgas plans to extend service to 200,000
more consumers and wants to invest $255 million over the next five
years. No sizable reduction in the number of staff is envisaged. The APV
Rt. is to decide on the sale of four other gas suppliers this week. --
Zsofia Szilagyi

HUNGARIAN OFFICIAL ON ROMANIAN-HUNGARIAN RELATIONS. Following a one-week
visit to Romania, Laszlo Labody, director of the office in charge of
Hungarians living abroad, told a press conference in the Transylvanian
city of Cluj that the Romanian education law should be modified. Labody
said it was "not normal that street demonstrations by a few thousand
students [in Bucharest] could lead to the amendment of the law, whereas
the 500,000 signatures gathered from among members of the Hungarian
community in a legislative initiative to amend that law are being
ignored." Radio Bucharest on 3 December quoted him as saying that
Romania and Hungary will certainly reach a historic reconciliation
because the Hungarian government's program and Romanian President Ion
Iliescu's proposal have the same aim. According to Duna TV Budapest,
Labody said the only remaining impediment to concluding the basic treaty
between the two countries is the disagreement over the paragraph on
national minorities. -- Matyas Szabo

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Jan Cleave