The Hungarian government is working with France’s Vinci Airport on a plan to buy Budapest Airport, so the Orbán family’s plan to transfer the airport to state ownership could be realized with French help – Bloomberg writes Quoting sources familiar with the case.
According to information from Bloomberg, Vinci may receive a significant minority stake of up to 49% of the purchase, however, an agreement has not yet been reached, and negotiations may fail. In 2021, in a failed purchase attempt, the airline was valued at around 4.4 billion euros.
The newspaper says that the Hungarian state wants 51% of the airport, and the remaining part will be handed over to an operator.
A Telex source also talked about the same thing previously, saying that the beauty of the arrangement is that the foreign partner (i.e. there is a good chance it will be Vinci) will be a minority owner, but will come in with financing above the ownership percentage.
Vinci made history for state purchases of Budapest Airport last September, when the VSquare newsletter reported that the Hungarian government would purchase the airport in cooperation with a French partner. It was already official at that time that the Hungarian state had made an offer to the German company AviAlliance to buy Budapest Airport with a foreign airport operator that had not yet been named. This partner will therefore be Vinci Airports, which operates several airports in 13 countries around the world. Where exactly, that is here They can be followed, and the map shows, among others, French, Serbian, American, Brazilian, Portuguese, Mexican, Cambodian, Dominican, Chilean and Japanese airports.
One Bloomberg source, who is also involved in the negotiations, said the current goal is to reach an agreement on the matter by the end of the year. The purpose of purchasing the airport is to enable the government to increase state-controlled economic capital.
A representative of the German airport operator, the Ministry of Economic Development and Vinci also did not comment to the newspaper on the deal.
