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bne July 2019 Companies & Markets I 11
Bige's factories have become a regular target for the authorities in the last half year.
The competition watchdog GVH also launched a proceeding against Nitrogenmuvek last year on the suspicion it colluded with other companies in setting prices.
Friendship with OTP top boss turns sour
Hungary’s fifth richest businessman told RTL that he suspects personal revenge behind the coordinated attacks against him, but he would not give out any names.
Local media reminded readers of the animosity between Bige and Sandor Csanyi, chairman-CEO of Central Europe's leading lender OTP. Even as the 57-year-old businessman used financing from OTP to privatise the petrochemical company and later buy Nitrogemuvek, there was one occasion when OTP withdrew working capital financing for the company. It came in 2008, just at the time of
the economic crisis. The Socialist-led government threw a lifeline to Bige though loans from state development bank MFB.
Csanyi, who tops the richest person list, has become the biggest domestic investor in agriculture and he is now
the biggest landowner in Hungary. He runs the vertically integrated agribusiness Bonafarm which posted HUF266bn in revenue last year.
The company owns meat processor Pick, the maker of the renowned salami of the same name since the 1870s. Hungary's iconic meat producer has recently announced plans to add
a new plant at its base in Szeged, south Hungary.
The two have also clashed over the country’s leading agricultural integrator KITE. Csanyi managed to gain majority stakes in the company also eyed by Bige, who wanted to expand his business to agriculture. Csanyi used a middle-man to buy the coveted agricultural integrator.
Csanyi’s agribusinesses rely heavily on fertilisers produced by Nitrogenmuvek, which has fuelled speculation that the OTP leader would be interested in taking over Bige’s fertiliser business, but he categorically denied these rumours.
The two businessmen's relation to the current political leadership could also explain the ongoing saga of Bige and foreshadow the possible outcome.
Whereas Csanyi is closely aligned with the ruling Fidesz party and Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the same can not be said about Bige, who made his fortune during the Socialist- led governments. He has few if any friend in the Fidesz business and political hierarchy.
In a 2014 interview, he said he tries to establish equal distance from political parties. "Governments come and go, but I am here to stay," he said.
More than 250,000 gather in Prague for anti-government protest
Nelly Tomcikova in Prague
A series of protests against the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and his minority government culminated on June 23 with the biggest mass protest in Prague since the Velvet Revolution in 1989. More than 250,000 people gath- ered on Letna plain, Denik N reported on June 23.
The organizers of the protest from the Million Moments for Democracy initiative estimated that a quarter of a mil- lion people protested against Babis and the Czech mobile operator T-Mobile confirmed their estimate of 258,000
in attendance, the Czech News Agency reported. Other people showed their support from abroad, for example in London and Brussels.
The next demonstration on Letna has been scheduled for November 16, to mark the anniversary of the beginning of the Velvet Revolution 30 years ago.
The leader of the initiative Mikulas Minar criticized a recent amendment of the state prosecutor’s office act pro- posed by the Justice minister Marie Benesova. Although the amendment is set to come in force in 2022 and cannot be misused by the current government, it would still mean that the PM can dismiss the state prosecutor at any time.
”I thought that Letna is not going to happen again. That
it won’t have to. But reality is different. We came here to stand for democracy. For two months, we have protested to support an independent judiciary and against the bad government. We’ve achieved that maybe everyone is aware of the Prime Minister’s issues and that higher attention
is drawn to politicians. More and more people care about democracy and are willing to do something about it,” said one of the organizers Benjamin Roll.
Speakers who took the stage addressed not only Babis’ conflict of interest and the issues brought up by the European Commission’s audit reports, but denounced his decision to block 2050 carbon neutrality goal and openly criticized Czech President Milos Zeman who showed his full support to Babis .
As covered by bne IntelliNews, Wenceslas Square in the heart of Prague, a symbol of the fall of communism in 1989, hosted the previous protests on June 4, and the organizers planned to keep the momentum up and fill Letna Plain with 200,000 protesters from all parts of the country on June 23.
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