Because of the fear of expropriation extract wealth From Hungary, the Salzburg-based Spar trading group,
as part of which part of the asset management rights were given to the management of their subsidiary in Northern Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Switzerland, which contributes to the market here, he announced Hans Reisch, CEO of the Spar Austria group in an Austrian food magazine. By Economx reviewed article according to the manager of Spar, he put it this way: that Viktor Orban the Hungarian Prime Minister is “harassing” the large food chains with special taxes and price freezes, the group responded by filing a complaint with the European Commission and reorganizing Spar’s operations in Hungary in order to protect the company from “Orbán’s clutches”.
According to the report, the Hungarian Prime Minister asked the commercial multinational to allow his relatives to invest in the Hungarian subsidiary. “Basically, the Hungarian government wants to take over the ownership of our company through the shareholding,” said Hans Reisch in his statement. He recalled that as recently as last June, the European Parliament stated that it was “deeply concerned” that a large number of companies would fall into the hands of Hungarian oligarchs. In addition, foreign actors are increasingly complaining about mass violations of the Hungarian authorities and attempts at intimidation, and the pressure on commercial companies is increasing.
Update
Telex approached the government to react to the claims of the Spar manager. They asked whether the Hungarian government had actually hinted at the acquisition of state ownership in Spar. Also, whether the Hungarian state is planning to acquire ownership in Spar in Hungary, and if it is not planning to do so on its own, whether it would take advantage of the opportunity if the opportunity arose. They were interested in the government’s position on the complaint addressed to the European Commission by Spar’s parent company.
Early Sunday afternoon, the Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office informed the paper – the text was also sent to us by the Government Information Center – that “the special retail tax was declared legal by the European Union court. These are the facts, all other claims are baseless!”
The head of the Spar group explained in the Austrian magazine that in order to prevent expropriation, the Hungarian business branch was divided into two parts: the company group withdrew the land and building rights from Hungary, as well as the wholesale and logistics rights, the management of which was transferred to Switzerland. There, Spar operates the subsidiary Aspiag Management AG, which participates in the operation of the chain in several European markets.
We gave our assets and real estate to our subsidiary Aspiag. Because we know that Orbán does not want to enter Switzerland, and we wanted to make it difficult for him to access Hungarian businesses, Reisch said. The supermarket business operated by Spar Magyarország Kereskedelmi Kft., on the other hand, is now connected to the mother country, Austria. The department benefits from group taxation and, according to Hans Reisch, saves 10 million euros a year.
Spar – with around 14,000 employees – is the fifth largest employer in Hungary. Hans Reich emphasized that giving up the business in Hungary is out of the question, because their income situation here is “very comfortable”.
So far, Spar has a total of 2 billion euros invested In Hungary. They have around 180 million euros in assets here, so “it’s not that easy to pull out and maybe give things up.”
We are so strong in the Hungarian market that it would be grossly negligent. We prefer to fight – said the head of the company group.
We wrote a few days ago that Spar complained to Brussels about the Hungarian government for interfering in the market. Spar claims that the special tax introduced by the Orbán government in 2022 is discriminatory and violates several EU laws, including the principle of free movement of goods. In addition to the special tax, Spar also damages the institution of the price cap. It is estimated that the government measures increased Spar’s costs by €90 million, resulting in a loss of almost €50 million in 2023.