Hungarian IT infrastructure company 4iG has withdrawn from a transaction to buy T-Systems, a Hungarian subsidiary of German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom and the largest IT services provider in Hungary.
“We made a difficult, but careful decision,” said 4iG chairman and CEO Gellér Jászai, adding that the company remains on the look out for acquisition targets and will engage on negotiations on a future partnership with T-Systems.
“The goal of Magyar Telekom [the German company’s Hungarian subsidiary which owns T-Systems] remains unchanged: to provide the highest quality integrated services on the best networks,” Rékasi Tibor, the CEO of Magyar Telekom said, stressing that the company aims to strengthen its market-leading positions.
The announcement comes after the two companies agreed on the sale of T-Systems in July, which was estimated at hundreds of billions of forints.
According to the Hungarian media, the decision to agree on the sale (and then backtrack from it) most likely came from the highest levels of the Hungarian government.
On December 11, 4iG’s value on the Budapest Stock Exchange saw a sharp decline of 14.5 per cent, which Hungarian analysts believe to be a direct consequence of the failed deal.
The company, which is headed by Mr Jászai, a businessman reportedly close to Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán, has seen an unprecedented rise in its net income this year to 2.5 billion forints (7.6 million euros) from 103 million forints (312,000 euros) in 2018.
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