Britain’s Vodafone (VOD.L) will sell its Hungarian business for 715 billion forints ($1.8 billion) in cash, it said on Monday, in a deal that will create a locally-owned telecoms leader in the central European country.
The British mobile phone and broadband group said it had agreed non-binding terms with the buyers, Hungarian 4iG (IGNY.BU) and state-run Corvinus Zrt.
The deal — which does not include Vodafone’s services business VOIS — is to create Hungary’s second largest telecoms operator.
“The Hungarian Government has a clear strategy to build a Hungarian owned national champion in the (Information and Communications Technology) sector,” Vodafone Chief Executive Nick Read said in a statement. The sale is to be complete by the end of 2022.
($1 = 404.0500 forints).