Hungary to compensate E.ON for loss-ministry

BUDAPEST, June 9 (Reuters) - Hungary's government has agreed to compensate the natural gas trading unit of Germany's E.ON AG (EONGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) for losses suffered due to past low retail prices and the decline in value of the forint, the energy ministry said in a statement.

The statement quoted by the national news agency MTI said that E.ON will get compensation of 60 billion forints ($303.1 million) by the end of 2010, according to the accord signed by energy minister Peter Honig and E.ON Vice Chairman Johannes Teyssen on Tuesday.

A gas fee to be introduced later will compensate the firm for a past gap between domestic and import gas prices and losses caused by the weakness of the forint EURHUF=D2 since last autumn, the ministry said.

The domestic price of gas is a sensitive political issue, as center-right opposition party Fidesz, which soundly defeated the ruling Socialist party in European Parliament elections on Sunday, has often called for lower gas prices.

But earlier press reports warned that E.ON might choose to sell its gas trading unit to Russian investors if the government failed to agree on compensation for the company's losses.

In the agreement, the Hungarian government received the preemptive right to buy E.ON's gas trading unit, E.ON Foldgaz Trade Zrt, the ministry said.

It said Hungary's state-owned power wholesaler MVM may buy a stake in E.ON's 400 million euro power station project near western Hungarian village Gonyu, while E.ON would consider buying MVM's minority stake in the Dunamenti power plant. ($1=197.97 Hungarian Forint) (Reporting by Sandor Peto, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)