Hungarian ICT group 4iG has concluded an agreement to buy 100% of corporate telecoms and IT/network infrastructure solutions provider Invitech for an undisclosed price, pending approval from the Hungarian antimonopoly authority Gazdasagi Versenyhivatal (GVH). The takeover involves the 100% acquisition of Invitech ICT Services and subsidiary InviTechnokom via holding company Rotamona (Cyprus). In a release on its website, 4iG’s CEO Jaszai Gellert stated: ‘Invitech has strategic assets in high speed data communications and network and telecommunications infrastructure. Thanks to its complex services and infrastructure, the company has significant growth potential in the domestic telecommunications market.’
Invitech provides info-communication services to more than 5,000 corporate, institutional and wholesale customers, with a portfolio including B2B broadband internet, data centres, IT/security and cloud solutions, as well as voice services. Invitech’s own 11,000km fibre-optic network has eleven border crossing points and the company operates 23,000 end-user IT facilities, with five in-house data centres. In full-year 2020 Invitech’s sales revenue was HUF24.8 billion (USD84 million) with EBITDA of HUF9.0 billion.
TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database shows that since 2017 Invitech has been controlled by China Central & Eastern Europe Investment Co-operation Fund (China CEE-Fund) – a private equity fund established by China Exim Bank in partnership with European institutional investors managed by Luxembourg Investment Solutions.
TeleGeography adds that the Invitech takeover is the latest in a string of acquisition deals for Budapest Stock Exchange-listed 4iG, which in March agreed to acquire 100% of broadband, pay-TV and mobile network operator DIGI (Hungary) – including subsidiaries Invitel and i-TV – aiming to complete the transaction by end-September. Furthermore, in June 4iG bought a 75% stake in satellite operator Hungaro DigiTel, and that month it entered into a preliminary agreement to buy a 51% stake in another international satellite provider, Israel’s SpaceCom. In July 4iG signed a non-binding agreement with PPF Telecom Group for the 100% purchase of cellco Telenor Montenegro, and in late-August it announced a preliminary agreement to take a majority stake in state-owned infrastructure operator Antenna Hungaria (itself owning a 25% stake in cellco Telenor Hungary and infrastructure associate CETIN Hungary).