Press Releases

Budapest, January 16, 2001

MATÁV (NYSE: MTA.N and BSE: MTAV.BU) is pleased to announce that a Matáv-led consortium has signed a shareholder agreement with the Macedonean government to acquire 51% of Makedonski Telekommunikacii (Maktel), the principle telecommunications provider in Macedonia.

After closing the transaction the General Meeting adopted a new Statute and elected the new Board of Directors. The new president appointed by the Macedonean government is Mr. Danilo Gligoroski and the other Directors are: Mr. Daniel Doncev, Mr. Horst Hermann, Mr. Istvan Szabo on behalf of MATÁV; Mr. Fridbert Gerlach representing Deutsche Telekom; Mr. Hanno Hausmann; Mr. Stavros Nikos Stavridis representative of Cosmotelco; Mr. Slobodan Danevski, Mr. Zamir Dika and Mr. Krale Spancevski on behalf of the Macedonean government. The General Meeting reelected Mr. Daniel Doncev as the CEO of Maktel.

The final price paid for the 51% of Maktel by the consortium was EUR 343.3 million. The difference from the tender offer price of EUR 362.5 million is due to the fact that the creditors of Maktel converted a smaller amount of their loans into shares than originally planned.

The shareholder's of Maktel as of January 15, 2001 include Stonebridge Communications AD (51%), the Macedonian government (47.125%) and IFC (1.875%). The members of Stonebridge Communications AD are MATÁV with an 86.5% stake, the Southeast Europe Equity Fund with a 6.1% stake and Cosmotelco with a 7.4% stake.

MATÁV is the principal provider of telecommunications services in Hungary and holds the national concession for national and international long distance telephony. MATÁV provides a broad range of services including telephony, data transmission, value-added services, and through its subsidiaries is Hungary's largest mobile telecom provider. Key shareholders as of September 30, 2000 include the Hungarian State (holder of the Golden Share), MagyarCom, owned by Deutsche Telekom AG (59.49%), while 40.51% is publicly traded.