VIG said in April that its acquisition of Aegon's business in Hungary was denied by the Interior Ministry.
Under state-of-emergency powers vested by parliament, Hungary's government has been equipped with legal tools to block foreign takeovers of domestic companies.
On Tuesday, VIG said it is continuing a "constructive dialogue" with the Finance Ministry on the matter, but added that it will appeal the Budapest court's decision with Hungary's highest court.
"We regret this interim procedural step and will appeal against the decision of the Budapest Metropolitan Court to the Hungarian Supreme Court within the next 30 days. Irrespective of this, we are continuing the constructive dialogue with the Ministry of Finance to clarify possibilities for a positive conclusion of the acquisition," VIG CEO Elisabeth Stadler said.
VIG said in November it agreed to acquire the businesses of Dutch peer Aegon in Hungary, Poland, Romania and Turkey for a price of EUR 830 million. VIG will take over Aegon's general and life insurance companies as well as pension funds, asset management and service companies in the countries. The acquisition would make VIG market leader in Hungary.
Producing journalism that is worthy of the name is a costly business. For over 30 years, the publishers, editors and reporters of the Budapest Business Journal have striven to bring you business news that works, information that you can trust, that is factual, accurate and presented without fear or favor.Newspaper organizations across the globe have struggled to find a business model that allows them to continue to excel, without compromising their ability to perform. Most recently, some have experimented with the idea of involving their most important stakeholders, their readers.
We would like to offer that same opportunity to our readers. We would like to invite you to help us deliver the quality business journalism you require. Hit our Support the BBJ button and you can choose the how much and how often you send us your contributions.
