Issuu

3Special

BBJ

Report

Telecoms & clouds

SPECIAL REPORT: VOL. 23. NUMBER 08

r lining Local SMEs see silve

in the clouds

With a worldwide explosion of demand around the corner, say clould providers Hungarian businesses trust are developing and in cloud services the g at last discoverin offer. advantages they LEVENTE HÖRÖMPÖLI-TÓTH

took over the CEO’s When Satya Natella roughly one year cloud position at Microsoft a “mobile first, reason. ago, he announced did so with good first strategy”. He the computer giant to for It was high time increasingly and that realize that communication portable gadgets, access takes place on simultaneous the need to providebest satisfied by using is to multiple users a survey by market the cloud. No wonder that public IT cloud shows from researcher IDC could easily doublebillion service spending reaching $127.5 today’s volume, dollars worldwide. providers in Hungary in Leading cloud positive trends, project similar there is plenty of room particular because for expansion.

Overcoming skepticism

Costs rule the day Worldwide public Year 2014 2018*

cloud services spending

Platform as a Service 8.1 20.3

Software as a Service 39.8 82.7

by segment (in

Infrastructure as a Service 8.7 24.6

services * Projection from private cloud include revenues NOTE: Does not resource platform.

$ bln)

Total 56.5 127.5 SOURCE: IDC and

customers dedicated for specific

are business customers Not surprisingly, the promise of cost− by Marton, most tempted According to to the effectiveness. savings is subject given the volume of and size of the needs, opportunitiesextent, not to mention enterprise to a largeactive in. On average, is the industry it to some 20−30%. savings may amount not be perceived as The cloud should firm has though. “Every cloud; a cure−all tool can work in the an IT system that does not apply to the however, it usually only some parts whole IT environment, elements to find these of it. We need client, then transform can be together with the cloud and that them into the entire environment as extended to the Marton adds. such gradually,”

TELECOMS & CLOUDS

use provisioned from a multitenant of Hungarian SMEsthink For now only 2−3% executives and such services. “Skeptical data can be accessed “Our business customers is not mature enough, that that work−related can work on their enterprise and whole teams makers claim need simple, easy-to-use half of such decision would be difficult,” anywhere, says Telenor. for services to it at any time,” so that work-related Why leave software on the shelf? introducing the an ideal solution statement issued The cloud offers offices solutions read a Magyar Telekom Journal. However, with several branch practical considerations at can be accessed Flexibility and when picking a cloud the Budapest Business estimates, growth companies as employees located the data teams Rival or subsidiaries, also play a role SMEs tend to choose access files at according to Telekom’s are anywhere, and whole expected for 2015.market different places can service. Hungarian changes made of up to 50% is contains the up−to−date to double overall number same time and any any time.” This way package Office 365, which Invitel expects synchronized. process can work on it at an increasing Microsoft Office in the version of the revenue. Apparently, in the SME segment automatically together with cloud person involved low monthly fee, of corporate leaders a reliable every gets to use the latest version. at Telenor. is then for a importance of always capacity, as featured partners, which couple recognize the capacity of our money for storage a subscription costs a ons background. “Such telecommunicati firms typically switch your pick adjusted to the best value for per user a month private, hybrid – take of thousand forints Many smaller up−to−date to the cyber age Public, ICT the customer.” sector misses out on and always offers the most to pay from ancient technology that resembles director for cloud, The SME you would have stresses László Marton, asset of the Invitel who version, whereas for Office sold in a box, at obvious in one leap, a phenomenon 1990s when families went business development accordance with another it is mainly software of thousands the era of the vary in that are tens since in Hungary extra. An additional a land−line phone that solutions the advantages or application−ba sed services easily and updates cost can be had never owned handsets. size. “Whilst subscriptions could so an Yet companies incentive is that are typically used straight for mobile of Telenor, Hungarian company the private cloud there is increasing in demand. capacity for peak periods, adjusted to the number of workers, of data never be In the experience their license would a lot more and hire extra to know where the largest firms, companies like a unused softwareto gather dust,” Telenor’s an eye on by part of small− Christmas, when prefer keeping interest on the hybrid or like the shelf to be served within is stored and enterprises for in this left on point out. It remains to be seen customers need trust service providers. Invitel is atypical services. A pillar be less medium−sized it, as they don’t and experts SMEs will embrace concerns should become entirely public cloud is based on hybrid short time. domestic infrastructure its fast security how Such because related services of our future strategy in our case that regard, renting are among popular that approach en masse. of a factor if which means in capacity for solutions, resources located widespread in Hungary. products. particularly high our own data center with the cloud Demand is are combined business customers “Our Hungary so simplicity: easy−to−use solutions need simple,

APRIL 24, 2015 – MAY 07, 2015

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Tax cuts seem feasible, if not too moderate Even though they don’t buy the estimate of 2.5% growth, analysts say the government’s proposed 2016 budget looks likely to fly. In fact they say the tax cuts could be still more generous. 3

NEWS

Rate cuts said likely to fuel property market The central bank’s reduction in the base lending rate was anticipated, as observers foresee that things will bottom out at 1.5%. The lower interest is expected to give a boost to real estate investment. 3

BUSINESS

CEE countries want to compete via taxes

Invitel’s László Marton says small businesses are realizing the benefits of relying on the cloud for their IT. Local providers explain how cloud solutions can actually make life easier for SMEs. 10

SOCIALITE

Despite the OECD’s project to create a more consistent tax base, participants at a regional meeting in Budapest still spoke of the benefits of different regimes for different countries. 7

SOCIALITE

SPECIAL REPORT

‘Camp Courage’ helps kids in need

New places to drink and eat downtown

Cable levy spurs mobile broadband

A summer camp for seriously ill children does a lot to reduce the psychological strain on the kids and their families. And doctors are amazed at the measurable physical benefits. 19

ÉS Deli, a sophisticated spot for a quick but fancy coffee and pastry, opens in the Kempinski Hotel. Meanwhile an old favorite, the Baraka restaurant, has reopened in a location not far away. 21, 23

A tax on underground lines seems to have been at least part of the incentive for UPC to start offering a full-service voice and data package via mobile. The result could be a shakeup in the market. 12

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Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

BBJ

3Special

Telecoms & clouds

SPECIAL REPORT:

Local SMEs see silver

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Report lining in the clouds

With a worldwide explosion of demand around the corner, say clould providers Hungarian businesses trust are developing and in cloud services the at last discovering offer. advantages they LEVENTE HÖRÖMPÖLI-TÓTH

took over the CEO’s When Satya Natella roughly one year cloud position at Microsoft a “mobile first, reason. ago, he announced did so with good first strategy”. He the computer giant to for It was high time increasingly and that realize that communication portable gadgets, access takes place on simultaneous the need to providebest satisfied by using is to multiple users a survey by market the cloud. No wonder that public IT cloud shows from researcher IDC could easily double billion service spending reaching $127.5 today’s volume, dollars worldwide. providers in Hungary in Leading cloud positive trends, project similar there is plenty of room particular because

the day

Costs rule are business customers Not surprisingly, the promise of cost− by $ bln) Marton, most tempted by segment (in According to to the effectiveness. cloud services spending savings is subject given Worldwide public Total the volume of and size of the Infrastructure Software as a needs, opportunitiesextent, not to mention Platform as a as a Service Year enterprise to a largeactive in. On average, Service is 56.5 Service the industry it 8.7 to some 20−30%. 39.8 savings may amount not be perceived as 8.1 127.5 2014 The cloud should firm has 24.6 though. “Every 82.7 cloud; a cure−all tool 20.3 can work in the 2018* SOURCE: IDC an IT system that does not apply to the and however, it usually only some parts for specific customers services dedicated * Projection whole IT environment, elements from private cloud to find these include revenues of it. We need client, then transform NOTE: Does not resource platform. use provisioned from a multitenant can be together with the cloud and that of Hungarian SMEsthink them into the entire environment as For now only 2−3% executives and extended to the such services. “Skeptical data can be accessed “Our business customers Marton adds. is not mature enough, that that work−related can work on such gradually,” their enterprise and whole teams makers claim need simple, easy-to-use half of such decision would be difficult,” anywhere, says Telenor. for services to it at any time,” so that work-related Why leave software on the shelf? introducing the an ideal solution statement issued The cloud offers offices solutions read a Magyar Telekom Journal. However, with several branch practical considerations at can be accessed Flexibility and when picking a cloud the Budapest Business estimates, growth companies as employees located the data teams Rival or subsidiaries, also play a role SMEs tend to choose access files at according to Telekom’s are anywhere, and whole expected for 2015.market different places can service. Hungarian changes made of up to 50% is contains the up−to−date to double overall number same time and any any time.” This way package Office 365, which Invitel expects synchronized. process can work on it at an increasing Microsoft Office in the version of the revenue. Apparently, in the SME segment automatically together with cloud person involved low monthly fee, of corporate leaders a reliable every gets to use the latest version. is then for a capacity, as featured at Telenor. importance of always partners, which couple recognize the capacity of our money for storage a subscription costs a background. “Such a month telecommunicationsfirms typically switch your pick adjusted to the best value for forints per user private, hybrid – take Many smaller on of thousand offers the most up−to−date customer.” to the cyber age Public, misses out for ICT the to pay and always from ancient technology that resembles The SME sector Marton, director you would have of the cloud, who László version, whereas for Office sold in a box, at Invitel stresses obvious asset in one leap, a phenomenon 1990s when families went business development accordance with another it is mainly software of thousands the era of the vary in that are tens since in Hungary extra. An additional a land−line phone that solutions the advantages or application−based services easily and updates cost can be had never owned handsets. size. “Whilst subscriptions could so an Yet companies incentive is that are typically used straight for mobile of Telenor, Hungarian company the private cloud there is increasing in demand. capacity for peak periods, adjusted to the number of workers, never be In the experience their data of license would a lot more and hire extra to know where the largest firms, companies like a unused softwareto gather dust,” Telenor’s an eye on by part of small− Christmas, when prefer keeping interest on the hybrid or like the shelf to be served within is stored and enterprises for in this left on point out. It remains to be seen customers need trust service providers. Invitel is atypical services. A pillar be less medium−sized it, as they don’t and experts SMEs will embrace concerns should become entirely public cloud is based on hybrid short time. how fast domestic Such security because its infrastructure related services of our future strategy in our case that regard, renting are among popular that approach en masse. of a factor if which means in capacity for solutions, resources located widespread in Hungary. products. particularly high our own data center with the cloud Demand is are combined business customers so Hungary simplicity: “Our easy−to−use solutions need simple,

TELECOMS & CLOUDS

for expansion.

Overcoming skepticism

BUSINESS JOURNAL BUDAPEST B

VOL. 23. NUMBER 08

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Despite the OECD’s project to create a more consistent tax base, participants at a regional meeting in Budapest still spoke of the benefits of different regimes for different countries. 7

SOCIALITE

SPECIAL REPORT

‘Camp Courage’ helps kids in need

New places to drink and eat downtown

Cable levy spurs mobile broadband

A summer camp for seriously ill children does a lot to reduce the psychological strain on the kids and their families. And doctors are amazed at the measurable physical benefits. 19

ÉS Deli, a sophisticated spot for a quick but fancy coffee and pastry, opens in the Kempinski Hotel. Meanwhile an old favorite, the Baraka restaurant, has reopened in a location not far away. 21, 23

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Jobbik remains an unappealing alternative This space has often contained strong criticism of the ruling Fidesz party, which has used its two−thirds majority in Parliament to rewrite the constitution and curtail freedoms – creating a lack of transparency and predictability and scaring away investment. Unfortunately, the party that currently looks best placed to contest Fidesz for power in the 2018 election is an even less appealing alternative: Jobbik, which espouses anti−Roma, anti−Semitic and anti−Western platforms. A big part of Jobbik’s current strategy is to broaden its appeal by playing down its far−right stance, to woo centrist voters. But for all its talk, the party has not changed. Jobbik’s candidate Lajos Rig won an April 12 by−election for a vacant parliamentary seat in Tapolca – the first time Jobbik has won a seat directly, rather than through the national−list system. Meanwhile, its popularity seems to be growing: According to an Ipsos poll in March, Jobbik was backed by 18% of the respondents, or 1.5 million people, second only to Fidesz, favored by 1.7 million supporters or 21% of respondents. The nearest left−wing party was the Socialists, with 1 million supporters. And Jobbik’s support increases with every new poll, while that of Fidesz shrinks and the Socialists stagnate. Jobbik’s growth in popularity has been attributed to successful grass roots campaigning that helped the party come across as more mainstream than it really is. Back in November 2012, Márton Gyöngyösi – the MP who currently leads Jobbikʼs foreign policy cabinet – reportedly announced it was time “to tally up people of Jewish ancestry who live here, especially in the Hungarian Parliament and the Hungarian government, who, indeed, pose a national security risk to Hungary”. Gyöngyösi backpedalled from this remark, but even today, Jobbik’s English−language website, jobbik.com, which seems to be aimed at softening the party’s image in the eyes of foreigners who dislike hatemongering, still espouses the following position: “We will stop hushing up such taboo issues in foreign policy as the imperial practices of the European Union, the unjust wars waged by the United States,

as well as the Zionist Israel’s efforts to dominate Hungary and the world.” As The Economist notes of the victorious candidate in Tapolca: “Mr. Rig once shared a Facebook post that described the Roma as the ‘Jews’ weapon against Hungarians’”. Rig claims he reposted the Facebook item without reading it carefully, but the party’s anti−Roma sentiment seems to remain in the current platform on its website, which says: “We will pass legislation to enable the Hungarian Guard to operate in compliance with the appropriate regulation.” A uniformed, paramilitary−style group, the Hungarian Guard (Magyar Garda) deputized themselves for “crime watches” which involved patrolling rural villages and intimidating Roma residents. Closely aligned with Jobbik, the Guard was eventually outlawed, but it seems Jobbik wants them back. As for the party’s euroskepticism, their platform contains this item: “We will hold a referendum on our European Union membership as well as our relations to the Union. With regard to the latter, we endorse the [anti−EU] Europe of Nations concept instead of the United States of Europe agenda.” Elsewhere the platform states: “Our foreign policy concept attributes key strategic roles to three major regional powers: Germany, Russia and Turkey.” As a euroskeptic party, Jobbik is naturally attractive to Russia, and in an interview with the mandiner.hu website, party leader Gábor Vona did not deny reports that Russia is funding Jobbik, saying “Jobbik does not acquire any funding in an unfair, dishonest way. Neither from Hungary, nor from Russia or any other countries in the world.” As for human rights, Jobbik’s published party platform calls for the reinstatement of capital punishment and declares war on the Society for Human Rights, the Helsinki Committee, Amnesty International and other NGOs “that hinder the operation of law enforcement organizations”. The only thing that has really changed about Jobbik is that they seem like serious contenders in the next elections. There must be a better alternative.

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Then and now A massive memorial to Marx dominates Ferenciek tere just before Labor Day, May 1, 1919, during the one-year communist government of Béla Kun. At left is the square today.

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NEWS

EC suspects corruption in tenders 4 NEWS

Jobbik wins by−election in Tapolca 5

macroscope

MNB rate cut was forseen Analysts say the base rate will probably reach 1.5% and note a positive impact on the real estate market.

Photo: MTI

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Economy Minister Mihály Varga, right, speaks during an April 21 press conference, alongside Fidesz parliamentary faction leader Antal Rogán. The two were announcing plans for tax cuts in 2016.

Tax cut plan feasible, analysts say CHRISTIAN KESZTHELYI

As the prime minister promised a few months ago, the government turned in its budget plan for next year well ahead of schedule. And given how upbeat the document is, it is not surprising that officials could hardly wait to share it. While analysts say the budget draft released on April 21 may be a bit too optimistic, as most expect GDP growth of around 2% next year, they add that the plan is close enough to reality to allow for the proposed tax cuts. Right after handing the proposal to Parliament, Economy Minister Mihály Varga announced on April 21 that the 2016 budget, which banks on 2.5% growth, includes room for a 1% cut in the personal income tax, from 16% this year to 15% next year. In what may be considered a populist move in this pork−consuming country, the minister added that the VAT rate on unprocessed pork would be reduced from 27% to 5%. In an interview on state TV, Varga said that the government decided it will use extra resources generated by Hungary’s economic growth to cut taxes next year, rather than making further investments or seeking to create jobs.

Realistic, unsurprising plan Mariann Trippon, an analyst with CIB, told the Budapest Business Journal that the “macroeconomic plans for the budget of 2016 are realistic, however we foresee a slower GDP rise than the government’s 2.5%”. Trippon said she

“I believe that the government could have included greater tax reductions. [...] It is surprising that the government is planning to make a 1% decrease in the personal income tax, as it is insignificant.” also expects inflation to be slightly higher than the government lays out in the budget plan, but says the difference is insignificant. “The announcement of tax decreases is not a great surprise, as MPs already hinted that the increased financial margin – which was chiefly created by last year’s better than expected growth and the upcoming positive macroeconomic outlook – would be used for such purposes,” Trippon said. Trippon added that the planned decrease in the personal income tax would have minor positive results regarding the consumption of households, and “in the long run, in order to improve the competitiveness of the economy and to improve potential growth pace, the taxes on workers should be decreased as well.” Zoltán Török, head of research at Raiffeisen Bank in Hungary, agreed that the plan seemed reasonable. “Economic growth has returned to Hungary, which

is beneficial for the 2016 budget,” he told the BBJ. “Income from VAT, employment and salaries are on the rise, therefore there is margin to make changes to the 2016 budget.”

More changes expected According to Török changes to the budget are three−fold: firstly, the surplus income can be spent on decreasing the budget deficit; secondly it can be spent on infrastructure, health care and education; thirdly it can be used to reduce taxes. “Increasing expenditure has not been included in the draft yet, but I believe later on it would be included, as will increasing tax incentives for families,” Török said. The government’s projected 2% budget deficit is realistic, Török said, even if it “comes to 2.2% or 1.8%, it is under 3% and it can be decreased further as compared to the previous years, which is a good direction.” Török said he believes that decreasing taxes could be the government’s tool to try and stop their dropping popularity, and, although it is not included in the draft yet, he anticipates sectorial taxes, such as telecommunication and bank levies, will also be decreased. “I believe that the government could have included greater tax reductions,” Török said, adding that the tax burden in Hungary is currently quite large. “It is surprising that the government is planning to make a 1% decrease in the personal income tax, as it is insignificant.”

The 15 basis point cut in the base lending rate, down to 1.80%, announced by the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) on April 21, was in line with the expectations of analysts, who say they predict the cuts to continue for a while. Sándor Jobbágy, senior analyst at CIB Bank in Hungary, told the Budapest Business Journal that he expects the MNB’s easing cycle to be continued without any shocks to the market. He added that his firm expects the central bank to keep cutting the base rate by 15 bp in the future, and that CIB would not find 10−20 bp cuts surprising either. According to CIB, we can expect the current easing to stop at around 1.50%. Parallel to the base rate cut, financial interest rates are going down as well, followed by the price of debts, Zoltán Török, head of research at Raiffeisen Bank Hungary, told the BBJ. Török expects the base rate cut, on the one hand, to make the residential real estate market pick up due to cheaper debts, especially mortgages, and, on the other hand, predicts household expenditure will increase as well. “We expect the MNB’s easing to continue until it reaches a base rate of 1.5%”

External factors Although it too expects the rate cutting cycle to continue, Equilor Investment Ltd. noted that external factors could affect MNB’s easing policy – especially the easing cycle of the European Central Bank and the stabilization of Hungarian prices, which are still declining, but not as quickly as before. Equilor predicts average inflation for the year to come in around 0%. The consumer price index should leave negative numbers and start rising by autumn, then continue rising until it reaches 2% by the middle of 2016, according to Equilor. Equilor cautioned that there is one more external factor to watch: the U.S. Federal Reserve’s planned tightening and interest rate hike, which is currently hard to predict. Equilor noted that more than two thirds of Hungarian bonds and stocks are owned by foreign investors who would react sensitively to an early summer interest rate increase.

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04 News

Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

NEWS IN BRIEF Report: EC suspects ‘corruption’ in tenders European funding for construction on a stretch of M4 highway was blocked because the European Commission found overpricing in the tenders, according to a report published on April 17 by online daily hvg.hu that cites documents received from the EC. According to hvg.hu, the Hungarian government earlier claimed that the EC raised concerns about tender procedures under the previous government, which was in power until 2010, but the documents produced by the EC reportedly do not mention any such problem. Instead, the news portal said, all the concerns the EC raised involve tenders during the current Fidesz government. The report by hvg.hu says that the document chieﬂy covers concerns about tenders that took place between 2012-2013, and adds that the document is “full of” cases where the EC “suspects corruption”. According to hvg.hu, the Hungarian government has been

consulting with the EC over the issue since last October, as the EC found “crucial deﬁciencies” in the monitoring and controlling practices for EU funded projects. The Hungarian government said earlier that the funding was suspended over a matter of a “technical” nature, and that is why it cancelled the contract with the EU after a cabinet meeting yesterday.

Hospital debt reaches new highs, supplier payments suspended The accumulated debt of Hungarian hospitals reached HUF 83 billion in March, napi. hu reported on April 20. According to data published by the state treasury, the total debt of hospitals increased by a remarkable HUF 7 bln. “Settlement of supplier invoices has been suspended for months, and no supplier is being paid,” Association of Medical Devices Manufacturers’ chief secretary László Rásky told napi.hu. Cabinet chief János Lázár

said two weeks ago that HUF 60 bln was made available for the consolidation of state healthcare. At the current pace of rising debts, however, the hospitals’ accumulated debt could reach HUF 90 bln within a few months and the unconsolidated gap could be as high as HUF 70 bln by the end of the year, napi.hu added.

NAV scrutinizes tobacco shops During 5,500 audits of tobacco shops last year, Hungary’s National Tax and Customs Authority (NAV) found a total of 700 irregularities and levied HUF 127 million in ﬁnes for violations, Hungarian online daily Napi Gazdaság said on April 21. NAV has already encountered 57 violations following 500 checks this year, the paper added. Last year the authority levied a total of HUF 400 mln in 60 illegal tobaccoselling cases, and has already launched eight cases against illegal tobacco sellers this year.

Russian food watchdog begins inspections of Hungarian companies Experts of Russia’s plant and animal health authority Rosselkhoznadzor launched on April 20 the inspections Hungarian companies must undergo to regain entry to the Russian market, a representative of the agency told local news agencies. Alexey Alekseyenko told Russian news portals that Rosselkhoznadzor was scrutinizing approximately two-dozen companies in Hungary and Greece. The inspections will be completed by April 30 and results will be published a few days afterwards, he added. Russia introduced an embargo on

food imports from Europe last August, as a counter-measure to sanctions by the West because of the crisis in Ukraine.

Gov’t to make finance, economics obligatory subjects The Hungarian government anticipates making basic financial and economics studies obligatory for all secondary school students as of 2016, in order to develop a financial culture in Hungary, deputy state secretary Áron Márk Lenner said at a conference on April 16. A new generation of Hungarians with financial know-how must be raised, he added. Already, 35% of Hungarian schools teach basic finance and economics, and 9% of schools plan such classes, the secretary noted.

Farm minister, U.S. ambassador talk T-TIP Hungarian farm minister Sándor Fazekas and United States Ambassador to Hungary Colleen Bell discussed the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) free trade agreement between the States and the European Union at a meeting on April 17, the ministry said, according to news agency MTI. Both sides felt the agreement was in order, however, Fazekas expressed concerns regarding the use of genetically modiﬁed organisms and was keen to ﬁnd ways in which Hungary’s farm sector could be kept GMOfree. Ambassador Bell said America respected Hungary’s stand on the matter and stressed the importance of transparency throughout negotiations, the ministry added.

Day of protests around Hungary

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Demonstrators protest government corruption in Budapest on April 19. According to reports, thousands of people, in more than 100 locations around the country, marched on that day in demonstrations organized by opposition party Együtt, which translates as ‘Together’. Speakers from within the party, and those friendly to it, described a litany of concerns about the current government. Demonstrators also appeared in front of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s house in Felcsút with signs saying ‘How much has Fidesz stolen from you?’

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News 05

Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

Government against Gyurcsány’s firm monitoring development policy Nándor Csepreghy, deputy state secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office, said on April 19 that he had asked the European Commission to reconsider an assignment given to Altus, the company of former prime minister and current opposition party leader Ferenc Gyurcsány, to monitor the operation of Hungary’s development policy programs, according to Hungarian news agency MTI. Csepreghy said at a press conference before Parliament that Altus representatives visited several ministries last week and presented documents indicating that they have been commissioned by the EC to review development policy and institutions in Hungary for the new EU budgetary period. Since development policy has been a key issue for the government, it decided in 2014 to transform the regulatory and institutional system governing the use of EU funds during the 2014-2020 budgetary period, Csepreghy said.

Report: Euratom signs off on Hungary’s changes to Paks pact The Euratom Supply Agency (ESA) signed a contract on the supply of fuel from Russia for the new reactors to be built at the Paks nuclear power plant, following Hungary’s effort to comply with Euratom’s requests, the EC spokesperson for energy affairs said on April 21, according to Hungarian news agency MTI. “ESA has told us that the supply contract for Paks has been concluded and ESA’s analysis showed that their requests have been taken

into account, notably concerning the duration of the contract and the possibility to diversify the fuel supply,” Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said at a press briefing yesterday, adding that this was all the information she was able to make public. Itkonen also said that the amended supply contract signed by both Hungary and Russia was submitted to ESA on April 7 by the Hungarian authorities in Luxembourg and remains “under commercial confidentiality”. In addition, the Hungarian government has classified this document as secret.

Jobbik candidate wins by-election

Habony looks set to replace Simicska’s media firm According to reports, Modern Media Group, a new ﬁrm owned by Árpád Habony and Tibor Győri, is set to become the central body responsible for the emerging new Fideszfriendly media empire and will replace the role once held by media mogul Lajos Simicska, who recently had a public falling out with his long-time friend, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Habony, best known as Orbán’s advisor and for physically abusing a couple in a road rage incident in 2006, is also the proprietor of Színes Tinták Bt., which has not had any reported revenue for several years, according to public records. The prime minister said on April 21 that he has no official connection with Habony. Győri was the former head of legal affairs for the Prime Minister’s Office during the previous term. The chief executive of the company is Péter Keresztesi, the current CEO of Napi Gazdaság Kiadó, and Marketing, PR and Communications Director of Századvég group, according to napi.hu.

Jobbik party leader Gábor Vona, left, shakes hands with Lajos Rig, the winner of a by-election in Tapolca, during an April 21 celebration of the victory. Rig won in the April 12 vote to fill the parliamentary seat vacated by the death of the sitting MP, who belonged to the ruling Fidesz party. This is the first time that someone from the far-right Jobbik party has been elected directly to Parliament. All previous Jobbik MPs were given their seats based on votes for the national list.

Merre

Where

tart a magyar szellemi tőke?

is Hungarian intellectual capital heading?

Időpont: 2015. május 20. szerda, 9:00 - 14:30 óra • Date: May 20, 2015, Wednesday 9.00-14.30 SPEAKERS Dr. Tamás Freund, Neurologist and University Professior Dr. Bertalan Meskó, Medical future researcher Péter Radó, Education researcher, political analyst

Szabolcs Kun, Finder, CEO MinervaSoft és Arenim Technologies

A KONFERENCIA NYELVE: MAGYAR

Péter Malchiner Maximilian, C-level Executive Coach and Consultant

Attila Molnár, CEO Bátor Tábor Alapítvány

LANGUAGE OF THE CONFERENCE: HUNGARIANEÁJUSA

Dr. Farkas Bársony, CEO GE Hungary

moderator: Előd Solti, CEO Partner Solti & Partners Consulting Kft.

Gergely Böszörményi-Nagy, CEO Design Terminal

Nóra Szily, Presenter, Journalist

Rita Veres, CEO, Aon Hewitt

E A RLY BI RD RE G I S TRATI O N BY M AY 8

További információk és regisztráció • For more information and registration: www.bbj.hu/events/ • e-mail: event@bbj.hu • Tel: +(36) 1 398 0344

BBJ

2Business COMPANY

Turkish Airlines flies from BP to San Fran

NEWS Microsoft offers free Office 365 subscription for a year

Microsoft Hungary is offering a free oneyear subscription for all Office 365 services in addition to one terabyte of cloud storage for customers who buy either a Lumia 640 or a Lumia 640 XL smartphone between April 1 and June 30, the company announced on April 14. “People would like to use devices that make it easy to switch between work and entertainment without paying extra fees,” Tamás Dankovics, head of product marketing, Central and East Europe at Microsoft Devices in Hungary, said.

MagNet Bank buys factoring company MagNet Bank said on April 16 that it had bought factoring company CE Faktor Zrt. The parties did not reveal the price of the transaction. MagNet Bank received regulatory approval for the acquisition last December. CE Faktor purchased invoices worth close to HUF 24 billion last year, giving it a 2.6% market share. It has about 200 clients and two-thirds of its business last year was in the commercial sector. According to the Hungarian Factoring Association, gross turnover of Hungary’s factoring market rose 14% to HUF 899 bln in 2014. MagNet Bank had total assets of HUF 104.8 bln at the end of last year.

TakarékBank assets up two-thirds in 2014 Magyar Takarékszövetkezeti Bank (TakarékBank) said its total assets rose 66% to HUF 800 billion last year, as its shareholders decided to pay a HUF 1.6 bln dividend from an annual HUF 2 bln after-tax ADVERTISEMENT

profit at an annual general meeting on April 16. TakarékBank is the “central bank” for Hungary’s savings cooperatives, which were recently integrated to create synergy and help the institutions meet stricter European Union capital adequacy requirements.

Rába shareholders decide to pay no dividend Shareholders of Hungarian automotive industry company Rába decided at an annual general meeting on April 16 that the company would pay no dividend and also approved it’s Hungarian Accounting Standards proﬁt and loss statement, which shows a loss of HUF 298 mln. The consolidated IFRS P+L statement showed a proﬁt of HUF 871 mln. The shareholders mandated the board to purchase 150,000 treasury shares within the next 18 months. The state of Hungary owns just less than 74% of Rába.

MOL-INA talks stall, MOL set to sell stake Talks between Hungarian oil and gas group MOL and the Croatian government, the two major shareholders of Croatian energy group INA, have been stalled since last summer, MOL Chairman Zsolt Hernádi said on April 16 at a public press conference. “There are no talks whatsoever, the last negotiation round was at the end of last summer. It is radio silence,” Hernádi said following the annual meeting of MOL shareholders. Hernádi said MOL continues to manage the company “independent of the present political environment”, but also prepared to sell its stake. MOL intends to operate INA in “a normal

Turkish Airlines has launched its Budapest-Istanbul-San Francisco flight, making it the airlines’ 11th destination on the American continent, the carrier said in a press release on April 14. Five flights a week are now available, connecting Istanbul, Budapest and San Francisco. In honor of the new route, the carrier of the first flight was decorated with the elaborate and colorful painting shown above. Turkish Airlines later announced it would raise the number of its daily flights between Budapest and Istanbul to four as of July 3, Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs toold news agency MTI. environment according to normal conditions, attentive to Croatian strategic interests as long as these do not diametrically contradict market developments”, Hernádi said. “In view of these (real developments in the market), the current Croatian reﬁnery model (with two reﬁneries) cannot be maintained in its present structure.” Since mid-February, Hernádi has, once again, been listed on Interpol’s most wanted persons list after Croatian police issued a warrant for his arrest in 2013 on suspicion of bribing former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.

Hungary’s superlaser project begins planning new center Hungary’s superlaser center ELI-ALPs signed contracts on the planning and construction of four secondary source beam lines on April 17, ELI-HU Nonproﬁt told Hungarian news agency MTI. Sweden’s Lund University, Italy’s Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnology of the National Research Council, and the Foundation for Research and Technologies Hella of Greece signed contracts for €350,000 each. Hungary, Czech Republic and Romania won a joint bid for the European Union’s Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) project in 2009 and the University of Szeged is hosting the project in Hungary. The ﬁ rst phase of construction is expected to cost close to HUF 37 billion, 85% of which will be derived from EU funds. The center, which aims to discover

new ways of exposing the secrets of matter on ultra-short timescales, is to be completed by the end of November 2015.

evopro to develop hybrid trolley buses Hungarian evopro systems engineering launched a HUF 1.4 billion project to develop a hybrid trolleybus that will be able to operate without the use of overhead wires, the company told Hungarian news agency MTI. The project is being realized with a HUF 675 million European Union and state grant. Project manager László Kovács told the news agency that evopro has already manufactured two prototypes.

Police raid home of Kun-Mediator managing director Police raided the home of the managing director of travel agency Kun-Mediator in Karcag, eastern Hungary, late on April 19 and seized 800 contracts, news portal Origo reported, according to MTI. A spokesperson for the local police force would neither confirm nor deny the report. Kun-Mediator came under scrutiny from the police and the National Bank of Hungary last week, after it was exposed that the firm was also offering unlicensed investment services and managing billions of forints of its clients’ funds.

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2 Business

Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

Chambers support regional tax competition At a gathering of AmChams from around the region, participants saw a need to maintain different tax regimes, even while working together to eliminate loopholes for multinationals. Farkas Bársony of GE. ROBIN MARSHALL

Tax regimes are different among the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and that is a good thing, according to Farkas Bársony, managing director of GE Hungary. “We have tax competition that enhances growth in the region,” he said. “We should maintain that healthy tax competition.” Bársony was addressing the 10th annual regional tax conference, hosted this year by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hungary at the Budapest Marriott Hotel on April 15. Every year, the conference brings together the AmChams of Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia to discuss tax issues. While other conferees agreed there are benefits in maintaining competitive, and therefore different, tax regimes, one overarching theme of the conference was an effort to unify regimes through the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project, the development of which is being overseen by the OECD. The goal of the BEPS project is to find a way to ensure that global enterprises pay taxes in all the countries where they operate. The G20 group of leading economic nations asked OECD to come up with recommendations “for a coordinated international approach to combat tax avoidance by multinational enterprises by creating a single set of international tax rules to end the erosion of tax bases and the artificial shifting of profits to jurisdictions to avoid paying tax”.

Qualified optimism Robert McCafferty, vice president of financial supply chain design for Flextronics, suggested the new approach could boost outsourcing to companies such as his. BEPS, he said, is a “tremendous opportunity for the world economy, and particularly this region”. András Lénárd, head of the tax department at Magyar Telekom, was broadly hopeful, but pointed out “the administrative burden will increase, that is for sure, but we do not know yet what the gains will look like”. And he added one other warning: “Politics can make the project last a lot longer.” Speaking on a later panel, McCafferty said: “I have seen a lot of changes in development, in particular in this region, that I think are really exciting. I also think there has never been a better time in my 30−plus years to be in the tax arena. You

are part of the business; it is on you to drive the business into more efficient, more beneficial structures that’ll drive value to the company. The first thing I’ll say after 30 years in tax: There’s no such thing as a tax plan; it doesn’t exist. There’s a business plan that can include tax in the thinking and in the design, and that’s a good business plan.”

A race to the bottom Earlier, Zoltán Pankucsi, deputy state secretary at the Hungarian Ministry for National Economy, had made clear his government’s position: “We are in favor of implementing the BEPS program, but we are still against real tax harmonization. We want to maintain our very competitive tax environment.” Tomas Balco, general state council at the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic, warned that care must be taken in finding the balance between fighting “aggressive” (i.e. borderline illegal) tax planning and encouraging business. “What are the measures that will kill the business and kill the innocent, and what are the measures that will really actually address the problems that we are facing in terms of the BEPS practices?” Monika Laskowska, deputy director of the department of income taxes at the Polish Ministry of Finance warned, “In corporate taxation we see a race to the bottom” and said her country, like Slovakia, was going through a process of careful examination of the most beneficial way forward. “We are happy with the BEPS project, but would like implementation to go in very small steps, not to surprise people.”

The government view on tax: Zoltán Pankucsi, Hungarian Ministry of National Economy; Monika Laskowska, Polish Ministry of Finance; Tomas Balco, Slovak Ministry of Finance; and moderator Botond Rencz, EY. Growth of GDP per capita is far greater than in Western Europe, though starting from a lower base, he noted. “On the other side, as the population becomes more wealthy and there is better allocation and distribution of the wealth, that means there are more opportunities for business development and business growth.” The regulatory environment is also a positive. “A lot of investors from the emerging markets space are very focused [on the fact] that Central and

Eastern Europe offers this blend of the European Unionized approach with, still, upside for development.” There remains “significant differentiation in terms of countries” Petrykowski pointed out, with a spread in risk for the region going from “AA−”, the rating for Czech Republic, to a single “B”, which is Bosnia and Herzegovina. “It is a huge divergence. That is important to keep in mind: Central and Eastern Europe cannot be treated as one unified region.”

Monday 11 May 2015, 5pm ̵Kinnarps Center Váci út 92, 1133 Budapest Hungary

DESCRIPTION Addressing the challenges of the global economy's transition from the linear model to the circular economy which keeps resources in use for as long as possible, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life. Organizations and businesses sharing experiences and ideas on environmentally conscious principles and practices which reinforce innovation and enable a restorative economy.

Marcin Petrykowski, managing director and head of relationship management for EMEA and regional head for CEE at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services outlined why, from an investor and capital market perspective, the outlook for the regionʼs countries is good: “Central and Eastern Europe today offers a very attractive hybrid between an emerging market and elements of a developed economy. This means that more and more investors that were historically emerging markets investors are turning toward Central and Eastern Europe in a similar way to how developed markets are approached. The mix is very important and the region benefits greatly from it.”

H.E. Mr Roland Galharague̵̵, Ambassador of France Mr Stefan Speck̵, Manager, European Environment Agency Mr Ahmad Ishtiaq̵, Head of HSE, MOL Group Ms Tanja Vainio̵, Country Manager, ABB Ltd Mr Csaba Toth̵, HR Director, LEGO

PROGRAM

Hybrid Model

SPEAKERS INCLUDE

17.00 Registration 18.00 EuCham president speech 18.10 Keynote speaker: Ambassador of France 18.20 MOL: Oil & gas sustainability for a circular framework 18.30 EEA: EU legislation and financial perspective on green economy 18.40 Panel 1: Transition from a traditional linear ‘take-make-waste’ model to circular model 19.20 Panel 2: The financial engine for circular economy: social and entrepreneur impact 20.00 Networking Sponsorship / Partnership Opportunities Ms Alexandra Kuznetsova, +36 1 445 1055, ̵info@eucham.eu

Mr Francesco Fanciulli̵, CEO, Center and Eastern Europe, Prysmian Mr Istvan Treso̵,̵̵Head of AgroFood Directorate, K&H Ms Sarah Czunyi̵,̵̵Research Manager, BEE Environmental Communication Mr András Lukács̵, President, Levegő Foundation Mr George Tabakov̵, Chairman, EcoBulpack

FREE PARTICIPATION Application:̵̵eucham.eu

WWW.BBJ.HU

08 2Business

Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

EXPERT OPINION

NOTE: ALL ARTICLE S M ARKED E XPERT OPINIONS ARE PAID PROMOTION AL C ON TEN T FOR WHICH THE BUDAPE S T BUSINE S S JOURN AL DOE S NOT TAKE RE SP ONSIBILIT Y

If you are not growing, you are dying Ronald Keller Business Optimisation Expert

I recently needed to buy a new food cooler for a camping trip I was about to go on. As a big supporter to local industry, I happily went to the local shop to purchase a cooler. What I found was something that shocked me. The price of the cooler was well above what I anticipated. I decided to drive the 300 meters to the big chain store and check their pricing before I purchased the cooler at the local “Mom & Pop” shop. What I found was the same exact cooler was third the price. My dilemma was do I support local business at a price of 2/3 more, or do I save the resources for my family? Well, I bought the cheaper cooler. Globalization is the norm these days. We don’t think about it much in our daily lives but every now and then a headline related to news will paint an ugly picture of some company that is operating as an “offshore” company. But really what is an offshore company? It’s not what we think. We envision an “offshore” company being one that is hiding billions of dollars in accounts so that they do not have to pay taxes on that. But this is the exception and far not the rule. “Offshore” is also a typical byproduct of globalization meaning that it’s simply adjusting to a new environment to remain competitive and find the needed resources to achieve goals and objectives. Business is about making a profit. But this also does not happen in a vacuum. Companies simply do not become rogue and hide billions offshore, but rather governments make deals with them to have tax savings to bring jobs locally. For example in Washington State Boeing and

Microsoft are capable of making billions per year. The agreement between the state government and the corporation is about job creation, local investment, stability, and reputation to draw other companies to the region. It is not a “drug deal” behind the scene but rather a “business decision” by the state. Companies must do the same thing to remain competitive, make decisions every day.

informed decision as fast as possible, embrace risk, and be visionary. Globalization is a great and powerful phenomenon. It has allowed small startup companies to reach globally showing success almost everywhere. It has though also proved that the local all-inclusive approach to communities and business is a thing of the past. We chose to buy items made cheaper than more expensive to stretch our hard earned dollars further. This We as citizens, our elected officials, and does affect local communities of the small policies they support must think bigger than “Mom & Pop” shops, but also allows us to simply complaining about lost revenue in have more safety and security in our everyday taxes from companies who move abroad lives. And in the hierarch chart of priorities to become more competitive. Taxes do we need this first and foremost. It’s not to not solve budget shortfalls. Investment and say we should avoid local small business jobs do. And small business no matter what at all costs. To the contrary it allows them country you live in hires the most people a further reach. One example is a television ever. Case in point in Eduardo Da Costas series based off a family business in upstate book Global E-Commerce Strategies for New York. The series is based on a once Small Businesses he quotes in Europe alone unknown motorcycle manufacture that is small business “employ 66 percent of the now known worldwide which has allowed workforce” (2001). This 66 percent equals the local small company to expand, higher millions of employees that are our neighbors, numerous employees, increase tourism, and friends, and family. And the money this tax revenue for a small town that was once workforce makes from a local international a place bypassed by any who knew about it. subsidiary (think small business) turns over Globalization has created great wealth around numerous times in a community creating the world. That wealth trickles down to our value that also increases tax revenue for the local communities that benefit from it. It is easy to attack companies in the news and government. political grandstanding, yet the benefits of Is it fair to criticize a company who grows operating “offshore” legally are greater than and to remain competitive decides to move the few companies that operate illegally. to a different area? There is a saying in Though it is easy to label that tax optimization business “If you’re not growing, your dying.” as a negative thing, yet we all do it yearly Globalization has changed the landscape when we have to submit our tax returns. We for business and these rings true. Decisions search for ways to write off costs to optimize must be made in minutes, hours, and days. our individual taxes. Not weeks or months. Decision-making is about observing the market, orientating Also let’s look at this a different way. to a better position of dominance, making Switzerland is considered a big “offshore” the decision, and acting upon that decision. state in which companies go there for tax Though Switzerland offers Survival goes to the one who can cycle optimization. through the decision-making process reasonable corporate tax rates at 17.92% fastest. And that loop is increasing ever it is really not much more different than say faster and faster. Companies must make the Netherlands at 25%. Yes when we are

talking about billions there is a difference but it’s just simply a unique selling point of the given country to attract business. But also there is another part of these equation- resources. Where is the hub of my industry? Where can I start a new office for my company to have my “finger on the pulse” of the industry, where I can cut my decision making cyclic time? Also, where can I find people with the skills, knowledge, and abilities that meet my company’s goals? It may not be locally but in one of the major hubs of the world. New York, London, Zurich, Munich, etc., are all places that companies that wish to grow must move to so to be competitive. To strengthen their market position, while still be rooted in their local beliefs, customs, and traditions. This is what makes globalization so strong. The transfer of knowledge and experience in new ways and places. It also provides new, rewarding opportunities for funding; funding that transfers to working capital and local investments. To grow companies must adapt, and adaptation is about moving forward. And with moving forward money is what allows companies to be innovative. Switzerland for example not only provides companies with access to global experts but also investment opportunities, predictable regulatory environment that locally are not necessarily available. This transfer to you and me through increased jobs, local taxes, and investment. Don’t hate companies because they are trying to grow and become better. Millions of us do it every day by going to a gym, watching our diet and changing our life styles. We embrace globalization when a foreign company invests locally bringing jobs. Why should we not support our local companies who grow and expand? We should support them like we support our Olympic athletes- as a nation proud of what we have contributed to the world.

3 DAYS OF LIVELY DEBATE, OVER 50 SPEAKERS, ART AND MUSIC! GET YOUR EARLY BIRD TICKET NOW! JUNE 4–6, 2015 / BUDAPEST, HUNGARY Tickets & Info: brainbarbudapest.hu

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2 Business

Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

Building safety into the construction process The long list of inventions designed by creative Hungarians includes a recent one known as “transportable anchors for slurry walls”, which was developed by Skanska Hungary as part of its constant efforts to ensure safety at its construction sites and in the finished buildings. “Skanska considers safety an investment, which can strengthen competitiveness,” says Skanska Hungary’s Health & Safety Manager István Acsádi. “We want to make an accident-free work environment.” A multinational property developer, Skanska has constructed 170,000 sqm of commercial workspace here in Hungary, and just laid the cornerstone of another building in Budapest, Nordic Light Offices. In every country where it undertakes development, Skanska uses a detailed set of procedures to ensure the safety of workers during construction and also after, during maintenance and use of a completed building. Here in Hungary, Acsádi oversees those procedures. “We have a quite stringent health and safety management system, and we require contractors to follow our system,” Acsádi says. The safety effort begins with the design process, when Acsádi works with the

on a daily basis. The outputs of this teamwork are standard, safe, practical and effective solutions, such as the Alsipercha Fall Arrest System, standard working platforms instead of the classical ladders, full-mesh barriers for leading edges, locked full-mesh gates for lift shaft protection, a crane anti-collision system, and so on. It was concern with falls that encouraged Acsádi to design “fall protection for façade cleaning” in the Green House Building that Skanska developed in the 13th District of Budapest. The system allows for a safe, movable platform where cleaners can stand.

István Acsádi Health & Safety Manager Skanska management and architects to put together a “design risk register” that identifies potential risks in the construction process and in the completed building. One general risk that Skanska management and architects identified during the design stage is the scaffolding that is usually put up along a building’s slurry wall, which surrounds the inside of the foundation. Workers up on the scaffolding can be hurt in falls, and those working on the ground below the scaffolding risk injury from falling objects. This work is part of every building project. To make this process safer, Acsádi and Skanska management collaborated with local contractor HBM to come up with the “transportable anchors for slurry walls”. This involves putting tubes on the top of the

REAL ESTATE NEWS

OTP Property Investment Fund acquires Citypoint9 The Budapest city logistics scheme Citypoint9 has been acquired by the

The aim is to give the best solutions for the specific risks of a dynamic and constantly changing working environment, by providing standard and preventive tools/equipment in order to make the site practical, and enhance comfort and effectiveness of workers.

Hungarian OTP Property Investment Fund from MKB Bank Group. Citypoint9, comprising 23,000 sqm of modern warehouse and office space is located in the ninth district of Budapest. “Hungary is definitely on the recovery path with several large investment projects expected to close in the forthcoming short time period,” said DTZ, who advised the vendor on the deal. “With increasing purchaser activity, prices have started to rise, therefore those vendors waiting for favorable market changes have started to rethink their strategy and are coming to the market with their investment products. The industrial sector is currently the most attractively priced sector in Europe, with

Skanska’s “transportable anchors”. slurry wall, so that two arms equipped with pulleys and retractable lanyards can be inserted there. These arms and lanyards work as an anchor point and protect the workers while they are working at a height (for building, removal of scaffolds, stairs, or doing horizontal form work near the slurry wall). Many of the innovations created through the close cooperation of the Skanska team, mean that the safety manager and project managers, designers and work managers, work together

the most underpriced markets,” DTZ added. The company has won a tender to advise MKB Bank Group on the sale of its portfolio of industrial assets. The strategy of OTP Property Investment Fund is to increase the proportion of stable income producing property in its portfolio, according to Tóth Bálász, managing director of the fund, which has also recently purchased a retail complex in Újpest. The majority of property in the fund consists of office centers, followed by industrial and then retail. Report: Hungary commercial real estate joins global boom in Q1 Preliminary global direct commercial real estate investment transaction volumes reached $148 billion in the first quarter of the year, up by 4% year-on-year; a tendency that also boosted Hungary’s performance on the market, JLL said on April 11. “Hungary is experiencing a revival of real estate investment activity which follows several years of poor performance amid the wider European and global

Along with developing their own safety innovations, Skanska also requires construction crews to use many devices that are available on the market but are not used by others in Hungary, including harnesses for workers that are attached to shock-absorbing rope. “The most important thing is the safety of our workers, neighbors and stakeholders. We want them to feel thay are important and cared for, and we want every worker to go home to their family after work,” says Acsádi. “Skanska sees health and safety as part of social sustainability.”

financial climate. During the first quarter of 2015 commercial real estate volumes in Hungary totaled nearly €110 million, which accounts for a very successful first quarter based on the available statistics of the past four years,” commented Rita Tuza, head of research at JLL Hungary. “Office and industrial assets were equally attractive for investors representing circa 43% each of the total quarterly transaction volume, whereas the remaining 14% was made up of retail asset deals. ERSTE RE purchased Vision Towers South, Prologis acquired M1 Business Park and three countryside plazas were transacted as well. The market became more liquid as investors started to realize that the country represents an excellent alternative to fully priced neighboring markets. Furthermore several owners are reaching the end of their investment cycles, which motivates them to start marketing their projects. This is creating a long-awaited liquidity, which should take 2015 to the highest volume of the past years,” added Benjamin PerezEllischewitz, Head of Capital Markets at JLL Hungary.

BBJ

3Special Report

Telecoms & clouds

Local SMEs see silver lining in the clouds With a worldwide explosion of demand around the corner, clould providers say Hungarian businesses are developing trust in cloud services and at last discovering the advantages they offer. LEVENTE HÖRÖMPÖLI-TÓTH

When Satya Natella took over the CEO’s position at Microsoft roughly one year ago, he announced a “mobile first, cloud first strategy”. He did so with good reason. It was high time for the computer giant to realize that communication increasingly takes place on portable gadgets, and that the need to provide simultaneous access to multiple users is best satisfied by using the cloud. No wonder a survey by market researcher IDC shows that public IT cloud service spending could easily double from today’s volume, reaching $127.5 billion dollars worldwide. Leading cloud providers in Hungary project similar positive trends, in particular because there is plenty of room for expansion.

Overcoming skepticism For now only 2−3% of Hungarian SMEs use such services. “Skeptical executives think their enterprise is not mature enough, and half of such decision makers claim that introducing the services would be difficult,” read a Magyar Telekom statement issued to the Budapest Business Journal. However, according to Telekom’s estimates, growth of up to 50% is expected for 2015. Rival Invitel expects to double overall market revenue. Apparently, an increasing number of corporate leaders in the SME segment recognize the importance of a reliable telecommunications background. Many smaller firms typically switch from ancient technology to the cyber age in one leap, a phenomenon that resembles the era of the 1990s when families who had never owned a land−line phone went straight for mobile handsets. In the experience of Telenor, Hungarian companies like to know where their data is stored and prefer keeping an eye on it, as they don’t trust service providers. Such security concerns should be less of a factor if related services become widespread in Hungary. Demand is particularly high for simplicity: “Our business customers need simple, easy−to−use solutions so

Costs rule the day Worldwide public cloud services spending by segment (in $ bln) Year

Software as a Service 39.8

Infrastructure as a Service 8.7

Total

2014

Platform as a Service 8.1

2018*

20.3

82.7

24.6

127.5

56.5

* Projection SOURCE: IDC NOTE: Does not include revenues from private cloud services dedicated for specific customers and provisioned from a multitenant resource platform.

that work−related data can be accessed anywhere, and whole teams can work on it at any time,” says Telenor. The cloud offers an ideal solution for companies with several branch offices or subsidiaries, as employees located at different places can access files at the same time and any changes made are automatically synchronized. This way every person involved in the process always gets to use the latest version.

Public, private, hybrid – take your pick László Marton, director for ICT business development at Invitel stresses that solutions vary in accordance with company size. “Whilst the advantages of the private cloud are typically used by the largest firms, there is increasing interest on the part of small− and medium−sized enterprises for hybrid or entirely public cloud services. A pillar of our future strategy is based on hybrid solutions, which means in our case that our own data center resources located in Hungary are combined with the cloud

“Our business customers need simple, easy-to-use solutions so that work-related data can be accessed anywhere, and whole teams can work on it at any time.” capacity of our partners, which is then adjusted to the best value for money for the customer.” The SME sector misses out on another obvious asset of the cloud, since in Hungary it is mainly software or application−based services that are in demand. Yet companies could easily hire extra capacity for peak periods, like Christmas, when a lot more customers need to be served within a short time. Invitel is atypical in this regard, because its infrastructure and capacity renting are among popular products.

Not surprisingly, business customers are most tempted by the promise of cost− effectiveness. According to Marton, the volume of savings is subject to the needs, opportunities and size of the given enterprise to a large extent, not to mention the industry it is active in. On average, savings may amount to some 20−30%. The cloud should not be perceived as a cure−all tool though. “Every firm has an IT system that can work in the cloud; however, it usually does not apply to the whole IT environment, only some parts of it. We need to find these elements together with the client, then transform them into the cloud and that can be extended to the entire environment as such gradually,” Marton adds.

Why leave software on the shelf? Flexibility and practical considerations also play a role when picking a cloud service. Hungarian SMEs tend to choose Office 365, which contains the up−to−date version of the Microsoft Office package for a low monthly fee, together with cloud storage capacity, as featured at Telenor. “Such a subscription costs a couple of thousand forints per user a month and always offers the most up−to−date version, whereas you would have to pay tens of thousands for Office sold in a box, and updates cost extra. An additional incentive is that subscriptions can be adjusted to the number of workers, so an unused software license would never be left on the shelf to gather dust,” Telenor’s experts point out. It remains to be seen how fast domestic SMEs will embrace that approach en masse.

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Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

Interview: MS lifts governmentʼs cloud The Hungarian government is moving public data into the cloud, and Microsoft Hungary is helping provide the software that will run on the government’s servers. We spoke with Tibor Loncsár, National Technology Officer at Microsoft Hungary, about the project. ZSUZSA SZABÓ

In 2014 Microsoft also started private testing of its Windows Azure Government Cloud, an Azure variant specifically for U.S. government customers. Will Azure be launched in the Hungarian public sphere, as well? A: The Hungarian public sector chose to go the “private cloud way” with the National Cloud initiative. This is an alternative to a public cloud based initiative like Azure. The main driver of this choice is the utilization of EU funds on e−government developments. As these funds are CAPEX, creating a private cloud environment is more feasible in this situation than spending restricted operating expenses on consumption−based services like the public cloud.

In the beginning of 2014, Microsoft Magyarország and the Hungarian Government agreed to work together on a venture to transfer all public sphere data into a cloud system by 2020. How is the project going right now? A: We should be a little more precise, as we are talking about two separate initiatives. One is that the Hungarian Government and Microsoft made a strategic partnership agreement that takes in all areas of the ICT industry that Microsoft covers. The one is that the Hungarian Government has made a strategic decision to create a National Cloud environment – operated by the National Infocommunications Services (NISZ) – and migrate the IT infrastructure of the public sector into this cloud on the 2014−20 timeline. The project is going as planned, the hardware foundation of the National Cloud is created. Currently the second phase is ongoing, which covers creating the sophisticated software layers that will make NISZ a proper cloud provider. Microsoft’s role is key here, as it is the only meaningful cloud provider that has commercialized and made available all technology components (Windows Azure Pack sw suite and Cloud Platform System appliance) that Microsoft itself is using to provide its own public cloud services, Azure.

What developments have there been in the last year? A: The ﬁrst instance of highly redundant and secure server environment and capacity was created and the basic server management implemented. There

Q Tibor Loncsár: Microsoft’s role is key here. cloud environments. Behind public cloud services there are commercial service providers (like Microsoft with its Azure cloud services) and customers are charged on a consumption bases. The National Cloud is a private cloud environment, where the operator – NISZ in our case – is investing capital expenditure (CAPEX) to create a central infrastructure and provide services for “internal customers” – in our case the Hungarian public sector. The CAPEX funds for creating the National Cloud came from EU money,

“A ‘smart state’ should really look/function like a proper business organization. On the high level that means that all formalized processes should be implemented into and supported by ICT solutions, whether the users are government employees or citizens, and all data that is by any means meaningful should be available in digital and analyzable formats.” are also a few central applications (e.g. the one that manages the National Tobacco Shops) that already run on the National Cloud environment.

As I understand it, the “government cloud” is a HUF 2.85 billion IT development program fully funded by the European Union. Why should the EU invest so much into moving public sphere data into the cloud? What’s the advantage of this? A: First of all, let me differentiate between public cloud services and private

as part of an operative program that is dedicated to modernizing and digitizing public services. The main advantages of this change come from the benefits of centralized and consolidated IT infrastructures, like improved availability, security and operational/ cost effectiveness.

Could you give us some insight into the project itself? What phases of this long−term project are to be completed between 2014 and 2020? A: Besides the creation of the

sophisticated software layers on top of the server infrastructure, there is currently an audit of all the applications that are “candidates” to be migrated into the National Cloud. It is planned and expected that by 2020, all these public sector applications will have been migrated. It is self−explanatory that the preferred environment for all new developments is the cloud, rather than individual organizations’ data centers. This creates a situation where about 80% of all public sector systems will run in the National Cloud.

How does a so−called “smart state” actually look and function? A: “A “smart state” should really look/function like a proper business organization. On the high level that means that all formalized processes should be implemented into and supported by ICT solutions, whether the users are government employees or citizens, and all data that is by any means meaningful should be available in digital and analyzable formats.”

How do the ordinary citizen or corporation based in Hungary benefit from the cloud project? A: The most visible benefit for corporates and citizens will be that the cloud project facilitates the creation of proper electronic public services. These public services – whether taxation, health, registration, benefits or anything related – will be accessible by all of today’s digital channels and actual processing times are expected to drop dramatically.

Governing institutions work with sensitive data. How can Microsoft protect data from hacking? A: Data security, privacy and sovereignty are a key priority for Microsoft. According to the EU’s Digital Data Protection Acts’ expectations (often referred to as Article #29), at this point, only Microsoft’s cloud services have been announced as compliant with these expectations. On the other hand, if we analyze precisely the currently common on−premise data management (in house data centers) practices and standards, data security in the public cloud is much higher. Another aspect is that rather than protecting the IT infrastructure from fraudulent use/access, governments use more and more extensively sophisticated encryption techniques. This protects the sensitive information itself, not the “container” of the information.

Invitel and Microsoft announced on February 27 that they had signed a joint partnership agreement to help Invitel develop its cloud services using the Microsoft Cloud Platform technology. Does Invitel have any role in putting the state into the cloud? A: The partnership with Invitel is similar to what we are exploring with NISZ. Both want to become potent cloud providers (NISZ internally, for the government, and Invitel primarily for the public), and Microsoft has the technology to make it happen for them.

What are your expectations of the Invitel project once it is finished? A: Invitel will become one of the local major cloud service providers, beside the international ones like Microsoft, and offer tailor−made hosting and cloud services.

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Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

Broadband competition going mobile A tax on underground cable is apparently driving service providers up into the airwaves. The result is likely to mean more competition and lower prices in the mobile internet market. ANDRÁS ZSÁMBOKI

Among the many sectoral taxes that the current government has placed on utilities, there is one that is said to be the shortest piece of legislation in Hungarian history. The entire Utility Networks Tax Act of December 2012 fits onto one A4 page. “It is a simple and clear−cut tax law, to which there are rarely any exceptions,” Norbert Izer, Senior Tax Advisor of PwC told the Budapest Business Journal, adding that the Utility Networks Tax also had an impact on competition among internet service providers. “Those companies that provide internet and telephone services through cable networks pay very large sums, while cell phone providers of the same services are not affected at all by the tax. The measure therefore causes huge inequalities in the market.” While the goal of the tax was apparently to increase government revenue by hitting up wealthy utilities, the measure had the side effect of encouraging cable−based internet providers to switch to more technologically advanced, wireless methods for delivering internet access. In their eagerness to avoid the tax on underground cable networks, both UPC and Digi are planning to push deeper into the mobile internet market in Hungary, analysts say. While there are obstacles to penetrating this market, it seems that the entry of these two competitors is likely to shake things up. Judging by what happened recently in Romania, the new competition might lead to dramatic price cuts in services.

Charged by the meter Under the Utility Networks Tax Act, utility line owners must pay HUF 125 per meter in tax, regardless of how thick the line is: Companies pay the same rate per meter, whether it is a thread− thin wire or the 10−meter−wide, vaulted main sewage pipe which serves all the Buda districts. From the government’s point of view, the beauty of this straightforward tax is that it provides a dependable source of income with no loopholes. “The revenues generated from the Utility Networks Tax have proven to be rather stable,” Izer said. In 2012, the creators of the central budget calculated on HUF 55 billion in revenue from the utility tax, and the actual income in 2013

PWCʼs Norbert Izer: ‘There are rarely any exceptions.’

“Companies that provide internet and telephone services through cable networks pay very large sums, while cell phone providers of the same services are not affected at all.” was only one billion less; in 2014, the income was the same. Critics of the tax say that it discourages networks from laying cable in rural areas, where homes and businesses are farther apart. They also note its outsized impact on the internet market. While electricity providers have 36% of the taxable cable in Hungary, they tend to enjoy local monopolies. Cable providers, who have the second longest network of underground lines, at 30% of the total, are in a much more competitive market. Rather than try to beat their wireless competitors, UPC in Hungary decided to join them. In November, the firm announced the full commercial launch of UPC Mobile, a mobile virtual network operator offering 3G voice and data services in Hungary. “UPC has two main reasons to do this. Firstly, the future belongs to mobile broadband: In order to win the younger generations, one has to invest into that service. Secondly, mobile networks are not burdened by the utility tax,” László Szűcs, a UPC spokesperson told the BBJ. Digi is apparently preparing to do the same, according to analysts. In

László Szűcs of UPC: ‘The future belongs to mobile broadband.’

September 2014, Digi applied for and won a frequency suitable for the provision of cell phone and wireless internet services at the competition announced by the national media authority (NMHH). RCS & RDS, the company that owns Digi, declined to comment for this story.

A tight market With at least one, and probably two firms jumping into the cell phone business, it would seem that the market will change, though it is not clear how much room for change there is. According to data published by NMHH, there are a little more than 11.7 million subscriptions in Hungary, a country with a population of just under 10 million. Magyar Telecom is said to have a 46% market share, while Telenor is listed with 31% and Vodafone with 23%. János Suba, Corporate Communication Director of Vodafone, told the BBJ it is not easy to reshuffle the market, because few people leave their current provider. “Real swaps actually amount to no more than 3%, most of which is made up by company fleet subscriptions being switched from one provider to another,” he said. One reason for the customer loyalty may be that the majority of clients buy dedicated cell phones from the providers and they also join customer loyalty programs of a two−year duration. “Hungarians apparently like buying all communications services from the same company. This is why we hope to convince those customers who already buy internet services from us to buy mobile internet services from us too,” says Szűcs. UPC has already developed a tradition

of full−range services, which have proven to be successful. UPC entered the cable− based telephone market in 2003, at the time when the incumbent T−Com was losing ground because evermore people were switching to mobile phones. Using friendly pricing policies – including allowing UPC’s line−based phone subscribers to call each other for free – the firm has grown into the second biggest provider of land−line phones in Hungary. If it follows this strategy again, UPC might try to muscle its way into the mobile internet and voice market by undercutting the dominant market players. This tactic could also be employed by Digi, which has already used a similar technique in Romania, where Digi’s parent company RCS & RDS is based. RCS & RDS offered significantly lower prices to potential subscribers: For €5 per month, customers can make unlimited intra− and extra− network calls; on top of that, calls within the European Union were made free of charge; furthermore, customers could transmit 5GB of data via the mobile internet service every month. For comparison, a similar scheme in Hungary today costs the equivalent of roughly €50 – ten times as much as Digi’s offer in Romania. As a result of their price cuts, RCS & RDS in Romania seduced 70,000 subscribers away from rival mobile providers, Orange, Vodafone, and Cosmote in half a year. While Digi still hasn’t officially entered the competition, based on what we’ve seen with the country next door, we might be looking forward to mobile internet price wars in Hungary in the near future. It’s hard to say who the winner of such a war might be, but clearly it would be good for consumers.

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Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

A platform in the clouds, built in Hungary Local firm Neostratus got into the business early, before the market filled with clouds. Now they seek to distinguish themselves with customized service. NORÁ KROKOVAY

It started out in Hungary in 2008 as a small−scale venture to offer cloud services for business users with a focus on the Central and Eastern European region. “No one called what we were doing ‘the cloud’ then,” says chief executive András Tüdős, but he agrees that the term is a fitting one for the cutting−edge technology. Since its founding, the clouds have gathered, and now Tüdős’ firm is competing with Google and Microsoft’s latest Office 365 package, but the difference with Neostratus is its ability to tailor services more to individual needs. ADVERTISEMENT

“Countries have very different laws on data protection. There are even some ongoing lawsuits, I think. If a U.S. company provides services through its data center in Europe, which country’s laws apply? There are some debates on this.” The cloud platforms Neostratus makes are used by telecoms as platforms for their customers, but Neostratus also serves small businesses directly, allowing them to essentially outsource their IT department. A firm that relies on his company’s cloud services can forgo the purchase of expensive equipment, Tüdős says, and that means the client’s IT staff can focus on what they are really good at, instead of setting up word processors and email accounts, he says. “Anything internet−based nowadays is called a cloud service,” Tüdős says. “But our special competence is that we can provide these services locally and fit them to the company’s needs. We move in to the company’s headquarters as operators, as platform providers, and manage their systems remotely,” he says, adding, of course, that all of

this should be pictured in a virtual “cloud” world. That is often a hybrid world, as Tüdős explains: “It is a good idea to move anything requiring expensive equipment to a cloud and to keep things which are more specific, such as software for production or sales, in−house. The larger a company is, the more thought should be given to what makes sense to keep in the firm and what should be outsourced,” he adds. An Austrian telecom is one example where the company’s management services run on local servers but on a platform provided by Neostratus in the background. The platform is completely adjusted to the client’s profile, including the design and company systems.

Growth slow in Hungary The CEE regional market has proven to be smaller and slower developing than the company had imagined, Tüdős admits. The firm started expanding to the west, north and, more recently, to the south and southeast. He said it has its own platform in Dubai, and there are clients in Africa, Western Europe and in Finland in the north, for example. Slow growth is especially a problem in Hungary. The biggest problem is the chaotic political support system, Tüdős says. In Hungary, support for business in the past has been very rudimentary. Small companies are slow to grow and there is no mass demand for IT services as yet, he says. This is even true for the state sector, he added, although without providing numbers. But cloud services have huge potential, IT services are seeing a transformation from traditional system administration to cloud−based systems and Neostratus wants to play a full part in that. As for security issues – no doubt a top concern for many cloud users – it is crucial to know where your data is stored, and a specialized local firm can provide this better than the big global players, Tüdős says. There are security standards for storage, access and control of data. European standards are generally stricter and more transparent than overseas, with tight guarantees. Neostratus tries to get ahead of the game by providing “more and better” when it comes to handling businesses’ data. “Countries have very different laws on data protection. There are even some ongoing lawsuits, I think. If a U.S. company provides services through its data center in Europe, which country’s laws apply? There are some debates on this,” he explains, pointing to a legally fuzzy area. Providing services Europe−wide and beyond, Neostratus is following global standards, but the appeal of being

András Tüdős: Started before it was called the cloud.

“We move in to the company’s headquarters as operators, as platform providers, and manage their systems remotely.” based in Hungary is the workforce, Tüdős says: “There is an economic advantage in cost effectiveness, we have access to good IT professionals, substantially better than in Western Europe and especially in the Middle East.” After more than five years, the company no longer calls itself a startup, but in terms of financing, the hiccups known to startups apply, he says. “A small circle of private investors started the firm and growth and expansion has been financed since by investors on the market. This is the typical operation of a startup,” he explains. “It is immensely problematic to run this in Hungary and this is why we are not where we wanted to be five years ago.” After a slow 2013, there was improvement in the business last year, and Tüdős has hope that his cloud business will reach the lofty heights it has been aiming for since its founding.

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Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

Hungarian startups shine in Texas

The Hungarian exhibitors at SXSW.

Five Hungarian startups say they see the promise of benefits from their trip to SXSW, the biggest global tech gathering. LEVENTE HÖRÖMPÖLI-TÓTH

“They call it the spring break for the nerds; the whole event attracted a total of 300,000 and when you walked the streets of Austin, everybody was wearing a badge. It was amazing,” Dávid Ottlik, CEO and co−founder of Synetiq, a Budapest−based neuromarketing research company, recalls what he experienced at South by Southwest (SXSW) this year. The Texas gathering is a set of film and music festivals and conferences, with a so−called interactive section that serves as the ultimate global meeting point for representatives of tech and the media. Some 30,000 attended the technology event alone, with the event guide covering some 200 pages. So it wasn’t easy to stick out from the crowd for the Hungarian startups that were present in an organized form for the first time. Five were selected in a contest launched by Design Terminal, a government body, where the award was a ticket to SXSW.

On the way to Innovation Hub Budapest “The jury assessing applicants had industry heavyweights such as Ustream’s Gyula Fehér and Prezi’s Ádám Somlai− Fischer, and the winners underwent rigorous training before their trip so that they could get the most out of it,” Csongor Biás, head of the SXSW project told the Budapest Business Journal. “The idea was to provide these promising young companies with specific market access points in the United States and this large−scale event is perfect for that purpose. On the other hand, we want to position Budapest as an innovation hub, not least by building investors’ confidence.

Hungarian startups at SXSW SBrick: Controlling Lego pieces by smart RC Synetiq: Measuring efficacy of ads by monitoring brain waves Brewie: Automated beer-making machine for home brewing Vidzor: Cross-platform video making and sharing tool Notch: 3D motion sensor We arranged panel discussions on the spot that highlighted why it’s ideal to run your operations from Hungary. In San Francisco you have a lot harder time to outshine the incumbent behemoths after all,” Biás noted. Mentoring tech projects is new for the Design Terminal team, as it has exclusively dealt with creative industry companies thus far. But an incubation program is set to start in September with well−known figures from the startup ecosystem. “We do not wish to make competition for related private initiatives; our goal is to complement them. And we are not there to give money, but rather skills,” Biás said.

The BBC is on board already Synetiq could make good use of those skills at SXSW, since it was the company’s first step towards a U.S. market entry scheduled for next year. But its immediate focus concerns Europe, more specifically the UK. “Apart from talking to Pixar and a Mexican telenovela producer, we used the opportunity to set up meetings with European firms we were interested in, as we knew that executives of the major media companies would all be there. We are working on turning these leads into business,” Ottlik said. No wonder Synetiq was desperate to forge personal contacts in the field. It specializes in measuring viewer reactions to media content by using wearable biosensor technology. In spite of its short history,

Synetiq founders Dávid Ottlik and Ádám Divák.

“We want to position Budapest as an innovation hub, not least by building investors’ confidence. We arranged panel discussions on the spot that highlighted why it’s ideal to run your operations from Hungary.” its impressive customer list includes international ad agencies such as Young & Rubicam, Havas Media, and leading Belgian channel VRT. The newest trophy is a BBC contract under which viewers’ emotions are evaluated in home and lab environments. “The BBC is working with us, which is a dream come true. One of the projects concerns an interactive pilot program,” Ottlik explained.

The power of talking eye-to-eye Another startup that made it to South by Southwest was SBrick whose smart remote control receiver technology allows you to control all the LED, motor and power

functions of your Lego kits from a great distance. In fact, SBrick won the Design Terminal selection procedure. “One of the most important things we learned is how much personal meetings matter. We got into a huge number of conversations which would have not taken place if we had stayed in touch only via e−mail,” Lénárd Pásztor, project leader said. “Among others the largest global toy producers showed serious interest in our technology. It meant an awful lot that they could see right away on the spot what our product is about and they could try it themselves,” he added. The aim was to produce a demonstration tool that is nice and understandable for everyone, but ultimately Pásztor thinks that the potential of the technology goes well beyond the opportunities offered by Lego as a construction toy. Breakthrough could be given a further push by the fact that SBrick is a product managed by Vengit, which, in the past four years, gained experience through assisting startups like Prezi and Ustream in their early phases. “We are glad that we got further attention thanks to our trip to Austin, both at home and in the international arena. By continuing development and marketing new products, we strive to enhance Hungary’s reputation on the market,” Pásztor said.

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Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

Brain Bar brings big minds to Budapest Gergő Böszörményi−Nagy, director of Design Terminal, a public agency to promote creativity, talks about his organization’s June 4−6 event to encourage discussion of technology and society. CHRISTIAN KESZTHELYI

How did Design Terminal come up with the idea of Brain Bar Budapest? A: Budapest needs a global event on trends. Actually we were trendsetters a little more than 100 years ago, when our capital became a diverse and future oriented metropolis thanks to its colorful demographics and strong entrepreneurial culture. Today, as the agency responsible for the creative industries − and particularly since the 2014 launch of our incubation program aiming to prepare the nation’s most promising entrepreneurs to hold their own on the international stage, we have found ourselves in an extraordinary position to restore that heritage in a contemporary setting. Brain Bar Budapest, a platform to exchange knowledge and ideas on the future economy, is the newest part of our toolkit.

What is the main aim of Brain Bar Budapest? A: To become the region’s number one festival on trends and the future economy. A truly global event with world class intellectuals, people with dramatically different professional and social backgrounds, their visions and an opportunity to share them, debate them in an outspoken format. A bold, ambitious and proactive approach which will ultimately prove that Central Europe can hold its own in even the most eloquent global discourse on technology and society.

How is it different from an innovation conference? A: Brain Bar Budapest is not about innovation itself, and does not aim to showcase the most current developments in cutting−edge technology. Our objective is, instead, to explore how these advances could affect our own lives. Leading tech experts and opinion leaders will drive the participants of Brain Bar Budapest to think together and explore the contradictions of technology and humanity: of robotics and the future of human labor, mass urbanization and the rural lifestyle, or even singularity and religion.

What makes it unique? A: Brain Bar Budapest is not a mere stage, it is a laboratory – a platform to build the future together. Centered around Erzsébet tér but spread over multiple venues, the festival will offer participants the opportunity to truly immerse themselves in the milieu of inspiration for three days. Events will be taking place non−stop at the three venues housed in the main areas of the Akvárium Klub and Design Terminal, while various other special downtown Budapest venues will also be hosting parts of the program, offering a rare glimpse at the city’s hidden treasures. At the same time, the special festival elements of the program will use the power of music and art to provide additional pespective and inspiration.

Gergely Böszörményi-Nagy: ‘Great ideas are not enough on their own.’

Why do you think Budapest is a suitable place for such an event? A: Budapest is fascinating and vibrant; rife with talent, dreamers and doers, our scenic capital is an ideal backdrop to such a festival of inspiration. With its bustling intellectual landscape and cultural buzz, Budapest is an comprehensive showcase of the creative energies that are surfacing in Central Europe: the energies that make the region alluring and competitive. Meanwhile, the differences and synergies between the two sides of the Danube, between Budapest’s rich history and exciting future, its traditions and its unconventional aspects offer an insightful context to frame debates on the most profound and perhaps even divisive questions of tomorrow.

local and international policymakers. We can’t wait to see Richard Florida: the New York Times best−selling author of “The Rise of the Creative Class” is as close to a household name in the United States as any urbanist can become, and that’s really saying something. Tina Saaby, the Chief City Architect of Copenhagen is also coming − she’s proven herself a strategic thinker unafraid to experiment, so I’m very excited to hear what she’ll have to say about the future of our cities. There’s the fascinating Ken Goldberg, an artist, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and an inventor all in one. He’ll be discussing how to make the collaboration and training of robots more efficient and how best to leverage human wisdom and the unrivaled power of cloud computing. How far this can go, where the limits are − in theory, technologically and ethically − is still an open question, and we’ll be sure to ask Ken for his opinion at Brain Bar Budapest. Last but not least, there’s no need to mention why we’re especially excited to welcome Niall Ferguson, one of the most prominent historians of our time who’ll share his views on the future of Western civilization and how to renew its “killer apps”, competition, science, private property, and work ethic for the 21st century.

“Tech experts and opinion leaders will drive the participants of Brain Bar Budapest to think together and explore the contradictions of technology and humanity.”

Could you mention some presenters who will attend the event? A: We’re very proud to be welcoming a wide range of experts from the world’s top universities, the founders of successful businesses, the most exciting young artists from all over the globe, as well as

How do you think Brain Bar Budapest will affect innovation in Hungary? A: Brain Bar Budapest exists to inspire, with the bold and unconstrained exploration of the interrelations and tensions between rapidly developing technology and humanity, the clash of

leading thinkers and opinion leaders. We expect that the inspirational festival will generate multidisciplinary collaboration between experts with varied backgrounds from different cultures, to allow for cooperation between people who previously had no forum to do so in Hungary. I think one of the most important takeaways is that innovation and great ideas are not enough on their own, capital and investment are also vital elements of success. Framing Budapest as an innovation hub makes the city appealing for large corporations, as a target location to bring their R+D operations – we could see an inﬂux of foreign direct investment in coming years.

What are your general expectations with the event? A: We hope to reinforce the role Budapest and Hungary play within the European community, to allow our capital to ascend the ranks of the most prestigious platforms hosting continuing dialogue on the future. Many of the issues Brain Bar Budapest raises are particular poignant for the old continent, and we want to lead the way in ﬁnding solutions. Our objective is to push participants and onlookers to think critically, to question the world around them. The event strives to prove that you don’t necessarily have to conform to change: you can lead change yourself. And we believe the inclusive and participatory nature of this inspirational festival will drive stakeholders to realize their own role in exploring and resolving the issues that will deﬁne our common future.

WWW.BBJ.HU

Budapest Business Journal | April 24 â€“ May 07, 2015

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10,107

7,320

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1,813

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7,300

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Virtual server services, :LĂ€ KRWVSRW operation, server hosting

www.hdt.hu

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ACE TELECOM KFT. www.acetelecom.hu

DRĂ VANET ZRT. 10 www.dravanet.hu

OPENNETWORKS 11 KFT.

852

414

2,753

146

4,500 (approx.)

www.opennet.hu

EPHONE 12 MAGYAROSZĂ G KFT.

6,421

www.ephone.hu

ANTENNA HUNGĂ RIA 15 ZRT. www.ahrt.hu

DIGI TĂ VKĂ–ZLĂ‰SI Ă‰S 15 SZOLGĂ LTATĂ“ KFT. www.digi.hu

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â€“

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Zsolt Wilhelm, IstvĂĄn Kun â€“ Lajos Varga

1\tUHJ\Ki]D TiszavasvĂĄri Ăşt 35/A. (1) 878-1800 (1) 325-5675 info@netfone.hu

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Individuals (68), ThreeF Kft. (32) â€“

Attila Farmosi, GĂĄbor Varga GĂĄbor Varga ViktĂłria Krall

1037 Budapest, Zay utca 3. RIĂ€FH#DFHWHOHFRP KX

Individuals (100) â€“

Zsombor Papp 5H]VĹƒ 'XQD\ Csaba Csizmadia

7624 PĂŠcs, %XGDL 1DJ\ $QWDO utca 1. (40) 811-118 info@dravanet.hu

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AndrĂĄs Beliczay Anna Kutasi Judit Stark

1026 Budapest, (QGUĹƒGL 6iQGRU XWFD 15/C. info@opennet.hu

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Individuals (100) â€“

(ULND .ĹƒYiJy HorvĂĄthnĂŠ Tibor Kis PĂŠter MolnĂĄr

6723 Szeged, JĂłzsef Attila sugĂĄrĂşt 115. (1) 445-0000 (1) 445-0100 info@ephone.hu

â€“

Hungarian state (100) â€“

AndrĂĄs KĂĄpolnai MihĂĄly HalĂĄsz AndrĂĄs TĂłth

%XGDSHVW PetzvĂĄl JĂłzsef utca 31â€“33. (1) 464-2464 (1) 464-2525 antennah@ahrt.hu

â€“ RCS&RDS S.A. (100)

Florin Ungureanu, Ryszka Sambor â€“ â€“

1134 Budapest, VĂĄci Ăşt 35. (1) 707-1000 ugyfelszolgalat@ hu.digi.tv

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Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

Internet service providers

TELENOR HUNGARY ZRT. www.telenor.hu

VODAFONE MAGYARORSZÁG MOBIL TÁVKÖZLÉSI ZRT.

157,061

(1)

3,482,000

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Deutsche Telekom AG (59.21)

Christopher Mattheisen János Szabó Zsuzsanna Poós

1013 Budapest, Krisztina körút 55. (1) 458-0000 (1) 458-7176 –

1993 1,060

Telenor Hungary Szolgáltató Kft. (25.01) Telenor Mobil Communications AS (74.96), NYE Telenor Mobil Communications III AS (0.03)

Christopher Laska Bjorn Harald Brodersen Mike Michel

2045 Törökbálint, Pannon út 1. (1) 464-6000 (1) 464-6100 –

– Vodafone Europe B.V. (100)

Diego Massidda David Garcia Alexandre Froment-Curtil

1095 Budapest, Lechner Ödön fasor 6. (1) 288-4288 (1) 288-3200 –

– Mid Europa Partners (51), Matel Holdings Limited (49)

David Blunck Andrea Rába, Szilárd Szobol István Iski

2040 Budaörs, Puskás Tivadar utca 8–10. (1) 801-1500 (1) 801-1501 info@invitel.co.hu

– GTS Central European Holding B.V. (100)

Péter Kollár Péter Apjok Tamás Szabó

2040 Budaörs, Ipartelep utca 13–15. (1) 814-4000 (1) 814-4047 info@gts.hu

Netfone-Invest Kft. (80), Zsolt Wilhelm (10) ScanWinavia AB (10)

Zsolt Wilhelm, István Kun – Lajos Varga

4400 Nyíregyháza, Tiszavasvári út 35 A (1) 878-1800 (1) 325-5675 info@netfone.hu

3G 1991 10,883 (December 31, 2014)

MOBILE

ADDRESS PHONE FAX EMAIL

MICROWAVE

TOP LOCAL EXECUTIVE CFO MARKETING DIRECTOR

ADSL

921,809 (wire internet, December 31, 2014)

OWNERSHIP (%) HUNGARIAN NON-HUNGARIAN

CABLE

53,723 (consolidated, IFRS)

YEAR ESTABLISHED NO. OF FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES ON MARCH 1, 2015

LEASED LINE

www.telekom.hu

626,447

MEANS OF ACCESS

MODEM

MAGYAR TELEKOM NYRT.

TOTAL NO. OF SUBSCRIBERS ON MARCH 1, 2015

NET REVENUE FROM INTERNET SERVICES IN 2014 (HUF MLN)

COMPANY WEBSITE

TOTAL NET REVENUE (HUF MLN) IN 2014

RANK

Ranked by total net revenue (HUF mln) in 2014

–

131,605

–

1999 1,746

46,093(2)

13,019(2)

545,230

1995 1,172

10,107

–

1,050

135 (ADSL, December 31, 2014)

–

2012 50

852

–

1997 52

Individuals (68), ThreeF Kft. (32) –

Attila Farmosi, Gábor Varga Gábor Varga Viktória Krall

1037 Budapest, Zay utca 3. (1) 437-0590 (1) 437-0599 RIÀFH#DFHWHOHFRP KX

2000 8

Individuals (100) –

Zsombor Papp 5H]VŃ 'XQD\ Csaba Csizmadia

7624 Pécs, Budai Nagy Antal utca 1. (40) 811-118 (1) 890-0891 info@dravanet.hu

1996

– RCS&RDS S.A. (100)

Florin Ungureanu, Ryszka Sambor – –

1134 Budapest, Váci út 35. (1) 707-1000 (1) 707-0009 ugyfelszolgalat@hu.digi.tv

Enternet Invest Zrt. (»), LiberCom Informatikai Kft.(»), Róbert Bauer (») –

Róbert Bauer – –

1138 Budapest, Váci út 188. (1) 888-2069 (1) 412-2099 info@enternet.hu

» »

Tamás Graur – –

1038 Budapest, Váci út 188. (1) 465-7800 (1) 465-7899 –

» »

Örs Lévay Gergely Kovács Ádám Katona

5000 Szolnok, Szapáry út 18. (1) 690-1690 (40) 209-021 externet@externet.hu

– Zomerwind Holding B.V. (100)

Severina Pompilia Pascu – –

1092 Budapest, Kinizsi utca 30–36. (1) 456-2600 (1) 216-0061 –

%(/7É9 9DJ\RQNH]HOŃ .IW (76.58), other (23.42) –

Mihály Gácsi – –

1074 Budapest, Dohány utca 12–14. (1) 492-0000 (1) 267-6114 info@nordtelekom.hu

www.vodafone.hu

INVITEL TÁVKÖZLÉSI ZRT.

GTS HUNGARY KFT.

NETFONE TELECOM KFT.

ACE TELECOM KFT.

DRÁVANET ZRT.

www.invitel.hu

www.gts.hu

www.netfone.hu

www.acetelecom.hu

www.dravanet.hu

DIGI TÁVKÖZLÉSI ÉS SZOLGÁLTATÓ KFT. www.digi.hu

ENTERNET 2001 KFT. www.enternet.hu

EQNET INFOKOMMUNIKÁCIÓS ZRT.

414

2,753

–

1993

1999

www.eqnet.hu

EXTERNET NYRT. www.externet.hu

UPC MAGYARORSZÁG TELEKOMMUNIKÁCIÓS KFT.

–

2007

1994

www.upc.hu

NORDTELEKOM NYRT. www.nordtelekom.hu

(1) (VWLPDWHG ÀJXUH (2) 1RQ DXGLWHG ÀJXUHV

2009

BBJ

4 Socialite Supporting the children who need it most With a name that translates roughly as ‘Camp Courage’, Bátor Tábor provides seriously ill children with a life− changing break. Director of development Kata Tóth talks to the Budapest Business Journal.

and many of them started to run just because of Bátor Tábor.

CHRISTIAN KESZTHELYI

The brave kids of Bátor Tábor.

When was Bátor Tábor founded? Who founded it and why? A: Bátor Tábor organized its first therapeutic camp in 2001. A group of pediatric oncologists visited a similar camp in Ireland and were amazed by the immense effect it had on the campers. It was just a week and it changed lives. Returning home these oncologists, our founders, all had the same vision: Let’s make something like this in Hungary. When a child is diagnosed with a serious illness, beside the physical challenge he or she faces, there is a serious psychological challenge, a trauma that the whole family has to cope with. Fifteen years ago in Hungary the necessity of providing mental therapy for seriously ill people was emphasized by only a few medical professionals. This area has improved immensely, and we believe that our founders and Bátor Tábor did a great deal for this progress.

How many children do you deal with a year? A: In 2001 we received 60 children, this year it is going to be more than 1,000 campers. They are seriously ill ADVERTISEMENT

children, their siblings, their parents and also families who lost their child due to a serious disease. We run our programs almost all year round, and this year we are proud to say that we will go beyond the gates of our campsite and organize short therapeutic programs in hospitals and other institutions.

What programs do you organize for children? A: We create a physically and mentally safe surrounding for our campers in which they face a great variety of challenges. The programs we offer (high−rope courses, archery, horse− riding, drama, music and more) are not only about entertainment but also about finding skills believed to be lost or non− existent. Quite understandably, seriously ill children are often over−protected. They are told not to do this and not to do that, and these limitations constantly remind them of their illness. They find themselves incapable and different from their peers. At camp we guarantee they can forget about the illness, be kids again

and reach tremendous moments of success. We are doing continuous research with Yale University and the findings of this research show that the therapy we provide positively influences the self−esteem, peer relations and perception of the diseases of our campers in the long−term. It might just be a week, but it is indeed a life−changing experience. And when you read the letters of the parents, this is when you realize how true this is.

Do you accept volunteers? A: We run our camp programs with the help of carefully selected volunteers every year. Being a volunteer at camp is a great experience; the return rate is about 70%. We are honored to receive more than 1,000 applications every year. Besides the camp programs, we have a major volunteer program, called Élménykülönítmény, in which individual runners and teams agree to run for Bátor Tábor at races and raise funds for our programs. The program is very popular among companies: In the past five years we had already more than 1,200 runners

Who are your sponsors/ supporters? A: Participation at camp is completely free of charge. We cover our costs from voluntary corporate and individual donations. At this time of year our focus is the 1% campaign. Last year more than 16,000 taxpayers offered us 1% of their tax, which makes us very grateful, and is proof that it is worthwhile to operate transparently. The 1% tax allocation is a fast an easy way of giving, and as it is tax money, it costs nothing to the taxpayers. Surprisingly, about 50% of taxpayers still do not offer their 1% to any charity, so there is room for improvement.

How can businesses help you? A: I am not going to surprise you. Businesses can help us with donations. All our programs are completely free of charge, and to run them well, we rely on the trust of a number of companies and individuals. As Bátor Tábor is a member of a global association, the Serious Fun Children’s Network, our financial reports are public and Deloitte audits us every year. We are proud to have a long history of excellent corporate partnership programs. We insist on one thing: We ask for meaningful volunteer work only. Instead of asking a company to whitewash the walls at camp for the hundredth time, we ask them to help us in developing our website (in the case of an IT company), or if they are in HR, they can help us select the best staff. Our motto is: help us with what you are best at. To donate or find out more about the camp, see: www.batortabor.hu/eng

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4 Socialite

Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

2014: A year of light but bright whites After an all−around poor season the reds are a wash, but some decent wines are hitting the shelves. ROB SMYTH

Those who say that there’s no such a thing as a bad vintage in winemaking, but just good years and better ones, had ostensibly been forced to eat their words regarding the washout that was 2014. However, maybe they are right after all, as plenty of whites from this vintage are hitting the shelves in surprisingly pretty good nick, when all had seemed lost. This success in the face of adversity implies that Hungarian vintners are coming of age, getting savvier and indeed better at dealing with whatever nature can throw at them. And nature did throw quite a lot at them in 2014 in the form of vineyard disease and endless rain at the worst possible times, such as during the harvest, leading to dilution of flavors. This triumph, albeit minor, against the odds is another important step in the Hungarian wine

a bit lightweight. Love them or loathe story, and it also shows what can be them, the quantity produced is way achieved with rigorous selection of down compared to other vintages so grapes. There certainly weren’t as the best 2014s look set to burn briefly many decent wines around in the but thankfully bright. previous annus horribilis of 2010, In all clouds there are silver linings. while over the border in Austria, Normally it is rare to find zesty and where similar conditions prevailed, fresh white wines from Villány, but they managed to put out plenty of good wines from that year. there’s plenty of crispiness about One thing many 2014 whites Péter Bakonyi’s Csavargó 2014. have in common is sharp, biting, This is a blend of Zöldveltelini, mouth−watering acidity thanks Chardonnay and Királyleáka that was made only reductively to the grapes generally not in the tank to seal in the quite ripening fully enough freshness, which is does with to the stage where the acids aplomb. This is a nicely priced begin to drop as the sugar (HUF 1,550) and zippy light hits the optimal level. The wine from a young winemaker result is lots of green apple who excels at getting the best and lemony character, all somewhat reminiscent of basic from what nature gives him Chablis, which is great if you to work with. Its fresh green like your wine with crispiness apple, citrus fruit (especially and bite. However, the best grapefruit), pear aromas and ones such as Etyeki Kúria cleansing lemony palate will White 2014 managed to keep come into its own on warm the acidity nicely in check summer days. Indeed, the thanks to only working with tingling acidity will come the best grapes and discarding Pannonhalmi Apátsági down a peg or two in many anything substandard. The Sauvignon Blanc 2014. 2014 whites as they get some time in the bottle. other common trait is a lack of Zöldveltelini, which is the same grape concentration, which on the one hand we can see as the mark of the vintage, and on as Austria’s über trendy Grüner Veltliner the other as producing white wines that are (sometimes dubbed GrüVE), is starting

to be taken seriously in Hungary now too. Ethnic Hungarian Frigyes Bott makes one of the best examples outside of Austria itself, just over the border in the Muzsla wine region in Slovakia. His 2014 does not disappoint and what it lacks in body, it makes up for with its vivid varietal character, with lime, lemon zest, citrus fruit and a peppery finish. Within Hungary’s borders, one of the best exponents of Zöldveltelini is Villa Tolnay from Csobánc hegy in the Badacsony region. Incidentally, the very good 2013 vintage saw Tolnay produce three Zöldveltelinis called Nap, Hold and Föld, harvested at different times of day and vinified via different methods. They nicely showcase both the grape’s complexity and versatility. 2013 is also a vintage of high acidity but one with much more concentration of fruit to counterbalance the razor sharp attack.

A good basic Riesling Such freedom to experiment was not granted in 2014 with less room for winemaking expression allowed by the gods. Pannonhalmi, the winery of the famous Benedictine Monastery in the northwestern region of Pannonhalma, decided that its fruit had not been sufficiently blessed to make its flagship

NOTE: ALL ARTICLES MARKED PROMOTIONAL FEATURES ARE PAID PROMOTIONAL CONTENT FOR WHICH THE BUDAPEST BUSINESS JOURNAL DOES NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

PROMOTION

The real St. Andrea experience in Budapest St. Andrea Wine and Gourmet Bar opened on 19 March 2015 on the ground floor of the recently redeveloped, multiple award winning Eiffel Palace Office Building in downtown Budapest. The quality built environment and the aspirations of the winery in terms of oenology, gastronomy and high-end service are in perfect synchrony. and meet both generations of the winemaking family, Dr. György Lőrincz and György Lőrinc Jr. To extend the already rich flavors of the restaurant and to bring even more excitement to the bar, the organizers plan to invite guest chefs and guest sommeliers, set up wine duels, and have events especially designed for lady wine enthusiasts. When asked about the original thought behind opening a wine and gourmet bar, Klára Holló communication manager As Miklós Lizsicsár restaurant manager looks back in time: “It was almost pointed out: “Our ultimate goal is to 10 years ago when we first visited introduce one of the leading vineyards of Egerszalók. We met Dr. György Lőrincz, the Eger region to Budapest via a unique his wife and muse Andrea, and the kids. experience of pleasant gourmet flavors We tasted the amazing wines, inhaled offered in an ideal setting of tranquil the scent of the cellars, stood on NagyEged Hill, admired the scenery of the elegance.” The bar is unpretentious in style. One undulating countryside, and got inspired can casually stop by for a glass of fine by nature and its energies. We looked wine accompanied by organic Hungarian gourmet tapas snacks, but the restaurant also offers a weekly changing daily business menu as well as à la carte courses of great variety. Thematic wine dinners and seasonal wine celebrations make the St. Andrea offer even more complete, where wine connoisseurs can taste an exclusively wide selection of top St. Andrea wines and champagnes,

of his exposure to international cuisine during his travels and work abroad, and also being socialized on the Magic Chef (buvosszakacs.blog.hu). He moved back to Hungary after spending five years in Austria, where he was awarded multiple times for his dedication and talent. He describes his cooking style, and thereby the St. Andrea culinary experience, as ‘Hungarian flavors open to the World’. Photos: Stúdió Bakos, Viktor Kádár

at many sunrises, and watched the Sun set behind the grapevine. We witnessed some new springs, hot and starry summers, colorful and warm autumns and frosty winter months. And each and every time we were there we felt something different. Energies. Feelings. Tastes. Emotions. Great wines. Our dream, mission and ambition got defined right there: encompassing all of this, and offering it to our guests in Budapest. As the St. Andrea motto says ‘we strive to do good’. And that is exactly what we try to do. Each day. Every day.” The chef de cuisine, Ádám Barna, is the creator of exceptional flavors. He got his initial training in the Hungarian countryside of Békés County, but later his approach towards ingredients and food changed significantly as a result

The St. Andrea and Eiffel Palace brands nicely complement each other, and share similar values. They are synonymous with prestige, excellent quality, a respect for our past, a joyful celebration of the present and great perspectives for the future.”

www.standreaborbar.hu

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Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

Prior Riesling (or Rajnai rizling in Hungarian). Nevertheless, some very good grapes that would normally have gone into the Prior made it into Pannonhalmi’s basic Riesling 2014, which oozes class and character in 2014, despite only two out of the winery’s usual three Riesling vineyards yielding in this tricky vintage. This has typical cool climate Riesling notes of fresh green apple, pear and peach, and it’s got enough fruit and body hanging off the firm acid backbone to make a very round and enjoyable wine that has a soft and smooth landing thanks to a touch of residual sugar on the finish. It’s a similar happy story with Pannonhalmi’s 2014 Sauvignon Blanc, which is also tight and focused with tasty passion fruit flavors. Another good 2014 Sauvignon Blanc that will delight this spring and summer comes from Gilvesy in Badacsony, oozing gooseberry and even a touch of tropical fruit. It will take a while for the dry Furmint and Hárslevelű wines of Tokaj from 2014 to hit the shelves but the dry wines from the region’s Sárgamuskotály grape (also known as Yellow Muscat or Muscat Blanc) are already here. 2013 was a landmark vintage for this grape variety – which can be flat and flabby in a hot vintage – with the wines possessing both zest and depth. Gróf Degenfeld’s Muscat Blanc 2014 makes a good effort at being lively, aromatic and fruity, though it does lack it predecessor’s overall roundness. ADVERTISEMENT

Baraka is back Fancy bites are laid out for the April 17 opening party of Baraka restaurant, at its third location in Budapest since starting in 2007. A perennial favorite among expats and local gourmets, Baraka reopened in central fifth district, after about a year’s break, with a striking interior that features a fancy dining room and a bar area with a more casual menu. The core crew remains, including owners Leora and David Seboek, chef Norbert Biró and sommelier Zsolt Bartalics. Zoltán Nagy supervises the cocktail bar. The location is now V. Dorottya utca 6; tel: 061 200 0817 (www.barakarestaurant.hu).

4 Socialite

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4 Socialite

Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

WHAT’S

Fun things to d o in Budapest for the nex t t wo weeks.

EARTH FESTIVAL Budapest Zoo, April 22−26

OFF-BIENNALE BUDAPEST Various venues, April 24−30

In conjunction with Earth Day, Budapest Zoo is hosting the Earth Festival, which runs until Sunday April 26. Sustainable agriculture as well as the peculiar habits of birds will be presented in a playful context. Children will also learn about the zoo’s conservation efforts through the work at its bird sanctuary. zoobudapest.com

OFF−Biennale Budapest presents a series of exhibitions and art events in and just outside of Budapest over the course of the following week. As it is not affiliated with any institution, it is based on a voluntary collaborative initiative by artists, curators, art managers, gallerists and collectors intended to bring contemporary art closer to the public. The aim is to expose art as much more than mere luxury or a source of aesthetic pleasure. offbiennale.hu

PAINTINGS BY QI BAISHI Hungarian National Gallery, from April 23 This retrospective exhibition offers a comprehensive view of the works of Qi Baishi, a remarkable master of 20th−century Chinese painting. This is the first show of the artist’s work in Europe and will present approximately 110 paintings and woodcuts from his estate. mng.hu

GYULA FEKETE Bálna Budapest, April 25 Chinese pianist Claudia Yang will premier the latest piano concerto which she commissioned from Hungarian composer Gyula Fekete, inspired by the soundtracks of popular Chinese television series. The program, which is part of the Budapest

PROMOTION

Gourmet Festival: Chicken paprikash on the menu The most outstanding event of the Hungarian gastro culture, Gourmet Festival will be held this year during Pentecost weekend, 21-24 May, at Millenáris Park. This year the prominent event will open its gates already on Thursday and the dish of the year is chicken paprikash, that will be presented by the best restaurants of the country. In addition, the most outstanding restaurants, wineries, confectionaries from Budapest and the countryside will be there as well as other important members of the Hungarian gastro world. Two years ago it was the goulash, last year the potato casserole and this year the chicken paprikash is in the spotlight during Gourmet Festival, held on Pentecost weekend. Prominent writer, István Czifray, wrote the following lines on this dish back in 1840: “Take two or more chickens and cut them in pieces. Sweat some butter or fat in a brass pan and spice it with paprika, allspice, onion and cook until it turns yellow - then toss the cut chicken in it...”. At this year’s Gourmet Festival we can learn how the best chefs of the country will bring this emblematic dish back. Gourmet will also host international cuisine. Besides the local restaurant exhibitors, star chefs from outside Hungary will also cook on the gastro stage, where non-stop food and drink tastings will happen. In the street food category, the newcomers are the grill and barbecue (BBQ) and some exciting information will be revealed why grilling cannot be confused with BBQ,

so why the slow cooking over smoke is one of the most noble food making philosophy. As a new venue at Gourmet will the Bocuse d’Or Academy, the local epicenter of the world’s most prestigious chef championship. At this stand visitors can taste the 5 course menu of the Hungarian restaurants presented at the Hungarian stand at the Bocuse d’Or in Lyon this January. In addition, visitors can also taste the food of the best restaurants of the countryside, the most exciting rural tastes, Michelin star restaurants among the exhibitors and the program as well. More information and tickets: www. gourmetfesztival.hu

Spring Festival, also includes works by Smetana, Mozart and Bizet. btf.hu

JULIA FISCHER Palace of Arts, May 5

ROBERT DAVI SINGS SINATRA Papp László Budapest Sportaréna, April 27

Award−winning German soloist Julia Fischer who is equally at home with the violin as with the piano, will perform with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Although Fischer’s stage presence is captivating, it is her pure presentation of some of the most challenging passages that will surely win over audiences. Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E−flat major are on order for the evening. mupa.hu

Prolific actor Robert Davi is best known for his countless film roles and was once voted one of Bond’s top villains of all time for his role in “License to Kill”. When he’s not busy acting or taking on charitable causes, Davi has a tendency to belt out Sinatra tunes. He will be in Budapest as part of his “On the Road to Romance” tour in support of his latest studio recording. Davi will share the stage with local jazz singer Bálint Gájer. BUDAPEST DANCE FESTIVAL Palace of Arts, April 27−May 3 The National Dance Theater’s annual Budapest Dance Festival features all forms of dance from ballet to contemporary and folk. The festival will host both Hungarian and international dance companies over the course of one week. Notable performances including works by Hofesh Shechter Company, as well as Spanish flamenco dancers Rojas&Rodriguez and Nuevo Ballet Espanol. budapesttancfesztival.hu MEDIAWAVE Komárom, April 28−May 2 The 25th annual Mediawave festival will celebrate the works of Hungarian and international filmmakers as well as musicians and visual artists at the historic Monostor Fort in Komárom, Hungary, on the Slovakian border. Throughout the festival’s run more than 80 international and 40 Hungarian films will be screened. mediawavefestival.hu ZOLTÁN LÁNTOS Budapest Music Center, May 2 With a repertoire that spans nu jazz to Indian music and rock, violinist Zoltán Lantos is an exceptionally versatile musician who spent nine years in India taking in the rich sounds of Indian classical music that would evolve into his signature style of world music. On this night Lántos will perform with a group of eclectic musicians with Tamara Mózes on vocals. bmc.hu ADVERTISEMENT

MOZART’S REQUIEM St. Stephen’s Basilica, May 8 Mozart’s requiem was left unfinished when the composer passed away at the age of 35, and was finally finished a year later by Franz Xaver Süssmayr. This masterpiece of liturgical music will be presented alongside J. S. Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor” on the cathedral’s great pipe organ with the assistance of soloists from the Hungarian State Opera, the Budapest Youth Choir, the Choir of Parish Church and the Monarchia Symphonic Orchestra, under conductor András Virágh. BUDAPEST PÁLINKA FESTIVAL Városháza Park, May 7−10 Budapest’s annual Pálinka Festival offers more variety and a larger outdoor venue this year with the venerable apple in the starring role. Visitors can sample some of the finest spirits from the region as well as culinary treats made of apple to the accompaniment of live jazz and DJs. budapestipalinkafesztival.hu DANCE HOUSE DAY Liszt Academy, May 9 This gala of the folk music department of the Liszt Music Academy presents the forgotten musical treasures of Transylvania as well as works by Hungarian composers Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók. The first of these events was held in the book club on Liszt Ferenc tér, not far from the academy in 1972. lfze.hu

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Budapest Business Journal | April 24 – May 07, 2015

ÉS Deli: Fancy coffee to go

ANIKO FENYVESI

Offering specialty coffee for people on the go, ÉS Deli is the latest addition to the two−year−old ÉS restaurant, and part of the diverse gastro offering in Budapestʼs five−star Kempinski Hotel. Brought to you by the family business of restaurant impresario Zoltán Roy Zsidai, who has restaurants in Budapest’s Castle District as well as the ever−expanding Spíler empire in Budapest’s seventh district party zone, ÉS Deli offers gourmet coffees and pastries in a swanky central Budapest location. Coffee expert Máté Nezvál was given the task of selecting a blend that would entice coffee drinkers in the know. Nezvál, who uses Arabica beans sourced via direct trade, says that, as with wine, ADVERTISEMENT

coffee flavors vary greatly from year to year. He says he favors the level of fruity acidity that he gets in the ÉS blend, made up of beans from Rwanda and Guatemala. The perfect accompaniment comes in the form of delicate pastries and gourmet sandwiches, also available from the deli counter.

Izakaya is the first Japanese bistro in Hungary, a little sister of Fuji Japanese Restaurant just opened! Lunch menu, snacks, wide range of á la carte dishes, Japanese coctails, beers, sake, high quality service.

New Menu Soon!

Quick fix Although located in the Kempinski Hotel’s rotunda, ÉS Deli is by no means exclusively for hotel guests. Budapest’s lack of proper coffee to go makes this a good choice for passing tourist trade and locals looking for a quick fix during their busy working day. You can find the ÉS Deli on the ground floor of the hotel at V. Erzsébet tér 7−8 ( phone: 061 429 3777).

ͳͲͷͷ Szent István körút ͳ͹., Phone: +͵͸ (ͳ) ͵Ͳͳ Ͳ͵͹͵, www.kanpaiizakaya.hu