Press Releases

Budapest, December 18, 1999

In 1999, the Budapest Stock Exchange (BÉT) awarded MATÁV the Stock Exchange Issuer of the Year prize and also judged its 1998 report as the best annual report of the companies listed on the stock exchange. MATÁV earned the Stock Exchange Issuer of the Year prize with the success of its public share offering this spring.

The State Privatization and Asset Handling Company Inc. (ÁPV Rt.) sold its 5.75% holding in MATÁV in June 1999. The privatization organization made USD 315 million (HUF 75.5 billion) revenue on the sale of the 59.5 million shares offered to domestic and foreign institutional investors and domestic private investors.

Domestic private investors were offered special preferences in this share sale transaction and many of them took advantage of the installment payment scheme and the accelerated subscription procedure.

This successful public offering once again put Hungary into the focus of attention of the international financial world. MATÁV shares even attracted investors who had not been present in the Hungarian market. This transaction has shown that MATÁV is able to win the confidence of international investors also in a strong competitive situation.

MATÁV also won this title last year: the Budapest Stock Exchange awarded MATÁV the Stock Exchange Issuer of the Year 1998 prize on account of the success of its March 1998 bond issue. In March 1998 the company issued HUF 4 billion worth of one-year fixed interest bonds and HUF 8 billion worth of 5-year variable interest bonds. The aim of this bond issue was to increase the ratio of forint loans within the company's loan portfolio.

MATÁV earned the Stock Market Issuer of the Year prize for the first time in 1997 with the success of its public share offering. Over 156,000 Hungarian investors acquired holding in the company in the single biggest subscription campaign in the history of Hungary. The shareholders - MagyarCom and the ÁPV Rt. - sold 26% of the subscribed capital worldwide in a total value of USD 1 billion. MATÁV has become the company with the biggest stock market capitalization on the Budapest Stock Exchange and the first Central European company to be floated on the New York Stock Exchange.