Complaint About "Underhand" Sale of Vodafone Hungary Filed by Socialist Party
- 8 Jan 2025 8:02 AM
The Socialist Party is filing a complaint to the authorities in connection with the "underhand" sale of Vodafone to a state-owned fund which "recorded a loss of around 13 billion forints [EUR 31.3m]" during the sale of the telecommunications company in the period of less than a year, and the opposition alleges that the state exchanged high-value shares for ones of lower value in opaque transactions that produced losses seriously detrimental to national interests.
The state ploughed billions of forints of public funds into telecommunications and IT company 4iG, the majority owner of Antenna Hungaria, with a view to bolstering its market position, thereby squandering 13 billion forints of public assets in order to give a private company a competitive advantage, the Socialists said in a statement on Tuesday.
The statement said the transactions raised suspicion of mismanagement and negligence, adding that it was justified for the authorities to launch an investigation.
On January 31, 2023, the state fund in question, Corvinus, purchased a 49 percent stake in Vodafone Hungary for 323.4 billion forints, the statement said. Later, 19.5 percent of shares were exchanged for 128.7 billion forints, it added.
Two days later, Corvinus exchanged the 19.5 percent Vodafone shares in other telecommunication companies, Yettel and Cetin, during which the value of Vodafone shares was set at 125.7 billion forints, 3 billion forints less than two days earlier.
Then, in December 2023, Corvinus sold its Yettel and Cetin shares for 115.8 billion forints, recording a further loss of 9.9 billion forints, the statement added.
Source:
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.
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