PRESS RELEASE

THE STRATEGIC TRANSFORMATION OF 4iG’S TELECOMMUNICATIONS BUSINESS IS UNDERWAY

More top executives are joining to support the telecoms integration process

• 4iG Group, with a dominant portfolio in both the domestic and international telecoms markets, started the strategic restructuring and integration of its telecoms companies this spring.
• The aim of the process is to enable the companies to make more efficient use of the opportunities for cooperation within the group and the synergies in the areas of business operations.
• New top executives are being appointed to lead the telecoms companies to support the integration process of the telecoms portfolio.
• István Király will take over the management of the telecoms division of 4iG Plc as CEO of Antenna Hungária Zrt. on 1 July, succeeded by Tamás Tábori as CEO of DIGI Group.
• A new organisational unit will be created to manage 4iG’s international telecommunications portfolio, headquartered in Tirana. Róbert Budafoki will head 4iG International and will be responsible for the management and integration of the Albanian and Montenegrin subsidiaries.
• As previously announced, Csaba Bőthe will become Managing Director of Invitech, a key player in the Hungarian telecoms infrastructure, replacing Gerald Grace on 1 July.

In April, 4iG Plc started the strategic transformation of its telecommunications companies. The strategic goal of the info-communications group is to consolidate the companies of the group, which combines a number of industry competences, in the B2B and B2C service segments, and to create a group with a unified organisational and management structure, which is able to operate under a single brand name and with the efficiency corresponding to its market weight in the Hungarian and international markets. As part of the process, the telecoms companies will be led by executives with outstanding industry experience in acquisitions, sales, corporate integration, and technical consolidation.

Antenna Hungária Zrt.

From 1 July, István Király will take up the position of CEO of Antenna Hungária Zrt., the telecommunications portfolio of 4iG Plc. As the primary head of the business unit, he will be responsible for the coordination of business processes, the improvement of the Group’s performance by exploiting operational synergies, and the definition of the joint development and business strategy of the telecommunications companies.

4iG International

Róbert Budafoki, who has an outstanding international experience in the sector, has taken over the management of the foreign subsidiaries of the telecommunications business and has been appointed as the first head of the new 4iG International unit, which will be established within 4iG, headquartered in Tirana. Róbert Budafoki will be responsible for the operation and development of the Montenegrin mobile operator ONE Crna Gora and two Albanian telecom subsidiaries ONE Telecommunications and ALBtelecom. His primary task will be to oversee the integration and merger of the two Albanian subsidiaries under one brand.

DIGI Távközlési és Szolgáltató Kft. (DIGI Telecommunications and Service Providing Ltd.)

Also as of 1 July, Tamás Tábori, who has significant experience in the areas of organizational integration and the introduction of agile operations, will take over the management of DIGI Távközlési Szolgáltató Kft. and its subsidiaries – Invitel Zrt., DIGI Infrastruktúra Zrt. and i-TV Zrt. – from István Király. Tamás Tábori is expected by the Board of 4iG to increase the efficiency of business operations, improve the services of the DIGI Group, and prepare the company for integration.

Invitech ICT Services Kft.

As previously announced, Csaba Bőthe will take over the responsibilities from Gerald Grace, who is stepping down as CEO of Invitech on 1 July 2022. The expert with three decades of experience joins the company from Yettel. Csaba Bőthe knows the company well, having previously (2018–2019) managed the company’s marketing and business support functions.The executives newly joining the telecoms group with a proven track record and significant industry experience will be responsible for supporting the integration process, increasing the business efficiency of each subsidiary and creating the conditions for effective market operations.

Budapest, 1st July 2022

Background information:

Király, István

He is one of the most experienced executives in the Hungarian telecommunications market, with extensice industry expertise, having led major players in the Hungarian and international telecommunications markets over the past three decades. He holds an MBA in Management from Oxford Brookes University. He has unique industry knowledge and integration experience. From 1995 until 2004 he was Director of Sales and Marketing at Pannon GSM. In 2004 he joined Telekom Group, where he was Director of Business Development, then Director of Marketing and Strategy at T-Systems and CMO at Telekom until 2012. From 2014 until 2021 he was Director of the Vodafone Business Unit in Hungary. Since April 2022, as Managing Director of DIGI Hungary, he has been involved in the strategy of the Hungarian telecommunications company. He played a key role in the management and subsequent integration of four large-scale mergers in the Hungarian ICT market.

Budafoki, Róbert

He holds a degree in electrical engineering from the Budapest University of Technology. He started his career in 1991 as a computer systems engineer at KFKI, and from 1992 he worked at Olivetti as a systems engineer and later as a product and customer manager. In 1995, he joined Cisco Systems Hungary Kft. as a founder, where he was Managing Director from 1997 and Director of Partnerships and Marketing for the Central and Eastern European region from 2006. Since 2008, he has been the founding CEO of Central Europe On-Demand Zrt. (CEOD), a software and cloud computing services provider serving business customers in eleven countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Turkey and Bulgaria) in the Central and South-Eastern European region. From 1 June 2011 he was appointed Deputy CEO of Magyar Telekom, Head of the Enterprise Services Business Unit (T-Systems), and from 1 October 2012 he was CEO of T-Systems Hungary Zrt. From January 2014 he was Acting Vice President, Corporate Segment at Saudi Telecom Company, and from 2015-2020 he was Senior Consultant at Arthur D. Little, an information communications consultancy. Since January 2019, he has been Managing Partner of Cydrill Software Security.

Tábori, Tamás

He obtained his Master's degree from Corvinus University in 1999. During his studies, he was also involved in the activities of the student organization, Széchenyi István Szakkollégium, and obtained his second Master’s degree from City University, London. Early in his career, he worked as an economic advisor in both the public and private sectors. In 2005, he joined Vodafone Hungary, where he worked first as a regulatory expert, then as Director of Wholesale, Sales Strategy and finally as Director of Retail Products until 2017. From 2018, he was advisor appointed to the CEO, and later tribe leader of Magyar Telekom. He worked in the telecoms sector for about 15 years in senior management positions. He has a strong expertise in both retail and business services, as well as in post-acquisition organisational integration and the transition to agile operations.Ű

Bőthe, Csaba

He started his career in telecommunications at Westel 900 after obtaining his MBA in 1994. From 1996, as Deputy Marketing Director for Business Development, he was responsible for the introduction of several new services, and from 1998, as Sales Director, he was responsible for the complete renewal of the company’s distribution network. From 2001 until 2004, as Deputy CEO of Mobimak in Macedonia, he managed the development of the independent mobile services company. Having returned to Hungary in 2004, he was appointed Director of Enterprise Sales and Product Development at T-Mobile. After the merger of T-Mobile with Magyar Telekom, he was appointed Director of the Small and Medium Business Unit of Telekom in 2008, where he was responsible for the small and medium business segment. In 2010, he was appointed Director of Operations Support at T-Systems Hungary, where he was responsible for the implementation of the company's full customer service, back-office, installation, and operations functions. In 2012, he was appointed CEO of IT Services Hungary (ITSH), the Hungarian subsidiary of T-Systems International, which provides nearshore outsourcing services. He led the company until 2015, when he also served as CEO of T-Systems Romania and T-Systems Bulgaria. In 2016, he joined Liberty Global/UPC, where he developed the new regional B2B operating model as B2B Director for Central and Eastern Europe. In 2018, he joined Invitech ICT Services, where he had been building the Marketing and Business Support Directorate. In 2019, he continued his career at Telenor Hungary as Enterprise Sales Manager, where he focused on improving and accelerating sales efficiency, developing the company’s enterprise and M2M customer service, and launching fixed line and IT products. Csaba Bőthe will take over the management of Invitech ICT Services as CEO as of 1 July 2022.

More information:

Péter Elkán
communications and marketing director
peter.elkan (@) 4ig.hu
www.4ig.hu