Vodafone to sell Hungarian business for $1.8B

 Shoppers wear protective face masks in front of a Vodafone store inside a City Centre mall ahead of Black Friday, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Cairo suburb of Maadi, Egypt. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo

LONDON  -Britain’s Vodafone 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 and state-run Corvinus Zrt.

The deal — which does not include Vodafone’s shared services business VOIS — is expected 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 expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

($1 = 404.0500 forints)