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2 Business
Budapest Business Journal | June 05 – June 18, 2015
that teaches kids the principles of coding with custom-built visual programming language. With the usage of an “intuitive, creative and colorful” visual coding app, users can code a toy robot. Developers say that Codie is “a creative tool, a companion that augments other toys and games”. The company was able to raise $82,000 for its project on the crowdfunding site IndieGoGo. Currently eight people work in Codie’s development team.
Waberer’s inaugurates HUF 600 mln retreat
LogMeIn wins Genius Loci Award
Hungarian road haulage company Waberer’s International inaugurated a HUF 600 million corporate retreat in Balatonvilágos on the shores of Lake Balaton on May 28, Hungarian news agency MTI reported. Waberer’s is planning to invest an additional HUF 1.5 billion at the 100-room retreat over the next two years.
Spar Magyarország opens HUF 317 mln unit in Budapest Retailer Spar Magyarország opened a HUF 317 million unit on Váci út 34 in Budapest, with a total area of 500 sqm, the company said in a press release. Spar said in a statement that the company would focus on expanding its franchise network in the country this year, in line with plans announced earlier. “The company has invested more than €1 billion in the past 24 years in Hungary, with investments of €55 mln only last year,” Spar CEO Erwin Schmuck said at the opening ceremony. The CEO noted that last year’s investments created approximately 800 jobs in the country. Spar is committed to further expansion despite the “changed economic environment in the country” the CEO noted, referring to the increased oversight fee and changes in consumer behavior following the Sunday closures.
Richter’s uterine fibroid drug OK’d for long-term use Gedeon Richter announced on May 28 that European Commission officials had approved its Esmya drug for long-term management of uterine fibroids. The drug had already been approved for preoperative treatment of symptoms of the disease. According to Richter, the approval came after several levels of successful clinical trials. “The present extension of indication adding the intermittent treatment courses of Esmya provides an opportunity to women to benefit from long-term medical management of uterine fibroids and to potentially avoid surgery,” a press release said. “Uterine fibroids are the most common benign, solid tumors of the female genital tract, affecting between 20 and 40% of women of reproductive age.” Gedeon Richter is Hungary’s leading drug company and a blue chip on the Budapest Stock Exchange, with a reported market capitalization of €2.1 billion in 2014. The company boasts the largest R&D unit in Central and Eastern Europe.
Codie named most promising startup Hungary’s Codie was named the most promising startup at this year’s Hungarian Innovation TechShow (HITS), event organizers told Hungarian news agency MTI. Codie is a tiny wooden robot
Hungarian startup LogMeln was awarded the Genius Loci Award for its Micro Grant program which supports IT and mathematics education, along with helping strengthen the future labor market, having distributed altogether $30,000, the company said on May 26 in a press release. “A few years ago we realized that we need to do something for the young geniuses; however, we did not want to carry out empty CSR activity, so we were looking for something that matched our portfolio and helped for real,” Michael Zwecker, director of LogMeIn user assistance said. “We put special emphasis on educating the youth,” he added. Matematika Összeköt Egyesület, a Hungarian NGO specializing in the organization of math competitions, was awarded HUF 600,000 to popularize mathematics education among children, involving approximately 5,000-6,000 children. “The work of our hundreds of volunteers was aided by LogMeIn, and we are thankful for that,” association chairman Tamás László Balogh said.
CEO of MOL assesses the government
Photo: András Hajnal
Commerce and Industry (MKIK) rose to a record 24 points in April, up from 19 points in January. The index rose on improved expectations, mirrored by better assessments of investment activity, use of capacity, business position and headcount. Production in the last six months was the only category where sentiment worsened. The measure of SMEs’ uncertainty grew by four points to 39, reflecting the uneven nature of economic recovery.
MOL Group CEO and chairman Zsolt Hernádi speaking to AmCham. ROBIN MARSHALL
Budapest Airport offering retail space Budapest Ferenc Liszt Internatioanl Airport has room for six stores, with a total space of 600 sqm, in the airport’s SkyCourt building, a mostly duty-freezone, the airport announced in a press release on May 22. The stores currently in those locations had five-year contracts with the airport, and those contracts are set to expire, the release said. The airport primarily expects applicants who are planning to offer watches, jewelry, fashion goods, travel products, newspapers, magazines and books, the press release added. Winners of the tenders would reportedly be able to operate the stores for five years. “As growth in annual passenger numbers has exceeded 10% [a year-on-year rise of 10.8%, reaching 840,000 in April] and commercial income has increased accordingly, we believe that the time has come to get potential partners involved,” Kam Jandu, chief commercial officer at Budapest Airport said. According to Jandu, the store locations on offer are located in an area that can generate “high income”.
Wizz Air signs leasing contract with ALC Hungary’s low-cost airline Wizz Air has signed a leasing contract for an Airbus A320 with Air Lease Corporation (ALC); the plane is expected to arrive in July as the 63rd A320 in the airline’s fleet, Wizz Air said in a press release on May 20. “We are really happy about this new connection with ALC, not only because of its reputation and portfolio, but also because the company’s founder Steven F. Udvar-Hazy originates from Budapest,” Wizz Air CEO József Váradi said.
09
Business people should leave politics to the politicians, and concentrate on what they do best. Change what you can change, and move past that which you cannot: That was the crux of the argument put forward by Zsolt Hernádi, chairman and CEO of MOL Group when he spoke at an AmCham Business Forum on Tuesday (June 2). Perhaps surprisingly, Hernádi, head of what is by far the biggest company in Hungary, and according to the Coface CEE Top 500 the second biggest in the region, was addressing AmCham for the first time. But rather than talking up MOL, he preferred instead to analyze Hungary. He noted with a laugh: “I have spent most of my time in Hungary in the past one and a half years.” The joke needed no further explanation for this audience, but referenced his inability to travel since Interpol put an international arrest warrant out for him on bribery charges at the request of the Croatian government. Hernádi denies any wrongdoing, and Hungary’s state prosecutors have refused to extradite him, citing “national interests”. The MOL boss dealt first with the negative news. “We have to focus on demographics: In most cases quality is more important than quantity, this is one of the few exceptions. Hungary has the worst demographics in the region. The convergence, unfortunately, is to us.” He also attacked the size of the state – of Hungary’s neighbors, only Austria is bigger in terms of public spending – and most importantly its efficacy. Sectoral taxes, he argued, did the public image of Hungary far more harm than the “good” they contributed to state coffers. Education was another concern. “We spend relatively little on primary education,” he said. As a result, he added, Hungary’s position in the PISA
table – the Program for International Student Assessment, an international survey that evaluates education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15−year− old students – is getting worse compared to its regional peers. And, of course, there were the continual complaints about a lack of predictability. But that, Hernádi argued, belonged to the sphere of politics. Businessmen could complain, perhaps justifiably, but that was unlikely to change as long as the government could argue it was giving the people what they wanted in lower utility bills, for example. “We probably have to accept we cannot change how politics works. If the state wants it, you cannot change it,” he warned.
Just different On the plus side, the budget deficit has been maintained below the 3% threshold, there is good growth at 3.6% of GDP in 2014, low interest rates, a relatively good exchange rate at around 300 HUF to the EUR, as well as a positive current account balance. “We have to be proud: 3.6 is a really big achievement.” These figures would seem to point to the success of what the Fidesz government has long championed as its “unorthodox” policies. “Unorthodoxy is not bad by definition; it is just different.” But that doesn’t always mean it is the right answer, he said. “Just take the energy sector alone. From 2010−12 35 times they [the government] changed the regulations. How can I plan? Was it unorthodox? Absolutely. Did they have other choices? Yes, they did. That was a bad decision.[.‥] In some other cases I can say ‘Yes, they did it well’. Unorthodoxy itself is not black and white. Sometimes you have no other choice.”