The Hungarian state acquired an indirect stake in Yettel Hungary

National

Corvinus International Investments Zrt., acting on behalf of the state, and Antenna Hungária (AH) Zrt., operating as a subsidiary of 4iG Nyrt., entered into a share exchange transaction. As a result of the transaction, Corvinus Zrt. acquires an indirect minority share in Yettel Hungary.

The deal will further increase the assets and role of the Hungarian state in the strategically important telecommunications sector, and thanks to the share exchange, it will also acquire a minority stake in two of the market leaders in the domestic telecommunications sector – they explained.

With the transaction, in addition to further diversifying its investment portfolio in the telecommunications sector, the state will be able to contribute to the development of the sector more strongly and efficiently – from the ownership side – it was highlighted. They added: all this provides additional benefits for customers, the performance of the Hungarian economy, and the country’s competitiveness.

The department indicated that the transaction does not directly affect the customers of Vodafone Hungary or Yettel Hungary.

The announcement emphasizes that despite the difficult situation affected by the war and sanctions, the government is doing everything to avoid recession and protect families.

We have entered an age of danger, so Hungary’s sovereignty and stability must be increased, and the role of national property in strategically important sectors must be strengthened – they emphasized.

According to 4iG’s announcement sent to MTI on Monday, with the deal, they increased their ownership in Vodafone Hungary to 70.5 percent, after acquiring 35,476,749 series “A” ordinary shares with a nominal value of HUF 500 each, representing 19.5 percent of the company’s share capital.

With the exchange transaction, AH became the indirect owner of Corvinus International Investments Zrt., thus the Hungarian state, representing 25 percent of PPF Telecom Group’s Hungarian subsidiaries (Yettel Magyarország Zrt., Yettel Real Estate Hungary Zrt., and CETIN Hungary Zrt.) shares.

As a result of the exchange, Antenna Hungária is replaced by Corvinus Zrt. as the owner of the Hungarian Yettel-CETIN companies, and Corvinus Zrt.’s ownership share in Vodafone Hungary has decreased to 29.5 percent.

“Increasing our ownership in Vodafone Hungary by exchanging our share of Yettel-CETIN, which is treated as a financial investment, strengthens the implementation of the integration processes of the telecommunications companies in the portfolio of the 4iG Group,” the announcement quoted Péter Fekete, CEO of the 4iG Group.

Following the registration of the changes in ownership, Vodafone Hungary’s board of directors will expand from the current five to seven people, to which five people can be delegated by the 4iG group and two by Corvinus Zrt. The number of members of the supervisory board will not change. The rights of the state with regard to the governing bodies remain unchanged, they wrote.

As a leading telecommunications provider, the Czech PPF Telecom Group operates in five Central and Southeastern European markets (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia), where it provides mobile, landline, data transmission and Internet television services. According to their previous information, they serve around 18.3 million customers with mobile services, they employ 12 thousand employees in the region and in 2020 they achieved an EBITDA of 1.4 billion euros.

In 2018, PPF Group bought the subsidiaries of the Norwegian Telenor Group, which provide mobile services in Central and Eastern Europe, and last January it was announced that their Hungarian interest would be called Yettel Magyarország Zrt from March. Yettel Magyarország has almost 3.1 million subscribers.

 

MTI

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