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for teachers' year-long resistance
after the government virtually made striking impossible with a decree in February 2022. Over the last 18 months, a number of demonstrations and civil disobedience movements were held.
The government said the new legislation aimed to improve the quality of education and lead to higher wages. The government claimed that monthly salaries for teachers will rise significantly once Hungary receives EU
funds. A performance-based system will be introduced. Teachers unions have said that some 5,000 teachers considered leaving the profession if the bill was passed, which would further aggravate the labour shortage.
There are 16,000 vacant positions currently and the age tree of teachers is also worrisome, as the majority are above 50 years of age. Each year some 6,000 retire while 1,500 graduate each year due to bad working conditions and poor wages.
Teacher salaries in Hungary are one
of the lowest in the EU, less than two-thirds of the salaries of other tertiary graduates in Hungary. Carreer starters' net wage is hardly above €550 and reaches €1,100 after 40 years.
Opposition MP Anna Donath said the European Commission will start infringement procedure against
the legislation. Student groups are collecting signatures for a possible referendum on the issue.
Czech cyanide maker Draslovka
in talks on potential IPO
bne IntelliNews
The world’s largest producer of sodium cyanide, Czech Draslovka, is talking to banks about a possible stock market entry, seeking
an underwriter for an initial public offering (IPO), Reuters reported citing three anonymous sources familiar with the developments.
The IPO venue has yet to be decided, with London being one of the possibilities. Draslovka’s CEO Pavel Bruzek Jr. told Reuters in June that the company is working with JPMorgan to secure additional funds.
“As has been previously disclosed, Draslovka’s international growth strategy requires capital, and an IPO is being considered as one of our options,” a company spokesperson was quoted
as saying by Reuters, adding that an ongoing “dialogue with financial advisors” is taking place.
The company’s evaluation could be in the billions of dollars by the time it lists, which could be early next year if any of the plans go ahead.
Sodium cyanide is used to extract metals from ores. The site where Draslovka has its factory, has been home to chemical factories since before WWII. Previously
www.bne.eu
a German-run factory at the same location produced other chemicals used in mining and agriculture, including
the notorious Zyklon B. The gas was widely used as a rat poison and to delouse clothes, but was used in Nazi-era concentration camps to murder mostly Jewish prisoners.
A spokesman for Draslovka told bne IntelliNews that the German factory was destroyed in the war by Allied bombs and later rebuilt on the same site during Czech communist times. However, there is no legal connection between the German run factory and Draslovka, which are entirely different entities. Moreover, there is no documentary evidence that any Zyklon B from the former German-run factory was used in the Nazi death camps, but there is plenty of evidence that shows other German-run factories supplied Zyklon B to the concentration camps.
Based in Kolin, Central Bohemia, the factory was privatised in the 1990s after a period of nationalisation during the communist era in then Czechoslovakia and acquired by the Bruzek family in 1996. Draslovka Holding BV became
a 100% shareholder.
Reuters noted that last year the company sold $150mn (€136mn) of preferred
stock to American fund Oaktree
Capital Management and embarked
on an acquisition spree, boosting the company’s revenue by 286% to $468mn, but recorded a 13% drop in Ebitda to $77mn in 2022.
The company is targeting an Ebitda of around $400mn within the next five years.
World’s largest producer of sodium cyanide is considering a listing in London or another international exchange.