2023 has got off to a flying start for the already high-flying Hungarian info-communications group 4iG.
It began with its two Albanian companies One Telecommunications and ALBtelecom merging to form ONE Albania and only a few days later the announcement that it had agreed final terms for the acquisition of Vodafone Hungary.
The latter is being undertaken by 4iG’s Antenna Hungária and state-owned Corvinus, who will obtain indirect stakes of 51% and 49% respectively in the telco. It values Vodafone Hungary at HUF660 billion (€1.67 billion) and is expected to close at the end of the month.
What is particularly interesting about the transaction is that it is seen by the Hungarian government as being of national strategic importance. As a result, according to a decree published in the official gazette Magyar Közlöny and reported by the local media, it will not be examined by the country’s competition authority.
Meanwhile 4iG’s chairman Gellért Jászai expects it to “not only transform the market but also improve competitiveness and accelerate the digital transformation of the economy”.
What is certain is that 4iG will be acquiring an important player on the Hungarian market, with 3 million mobile and 800,000 fixed-line customers. Some of these will have at one time belonged to Liberty Global, which closed the sale UPC Hungary to Vodafone, as part of a wider deal also involving its operations in Germany, Romania and the Czech Republic, in August 2019.
4iG will also become the market leader in the fixed-line internet and TV broadcasting sectors in Hungary.
With the Hungarian government now close to achieving its stated aim of boosting domestic ownership of such strategic sectors as telecommunications, attention will almost inevitably be turned to 4iG’s foreign strategy. It is already in the process of acquiring an initial 20% stake in the Israeli satellite operator Spacecom and further transactions in other countries could well be on the cards.
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