BREAKING: Hungarian state acquires Budapest Airport – UPDATE
After more than a year of intensive negotiations, the sale and purchase agreement of Budapest Airport Plc. was signed today, on 6 June 2024, the Ministry of National Economy (NGM) announced. According to the statement, the transaction is now closed. After nearly 20 years the airport is back in national majority ownership.
Hungarian state buys Budapest Airport
The buy-back of Budapest Airport Plc. is the most complex and largest economic transaction of the post-regime change period, according to the NGM.
The negotiations between Corvinus International Investment Plc. and VINCI Airports took place in two rounds. The deal was concluded with an international vendor group comprising AviAlliance, GIC and CDPQ. On the other hand, an agreement was also reached with the international group of creditors financing the airport to close the transaction, 24.hu writes, based on the statement of the ministry.
The sale transaction is a record transaction in Central Europe. The buy-back was an extremely complex task, as while selling the airport is easy, buying it back is difficult, the statement reads.
The purchase price is EUR 3.1 billion, or more than HUF 1,200 billion, and the successful agreement with the consortium of lenders extended the EUR 1.44 billion loan taken out by the previous owners.
UPDATE: Minister
The purchase agreement on the Hungarian state and an associated investor acquiring Liszt Ferenc International Airport has been signed, Márton Nagy, the national economy minister, said on Thursday. “We’ve got it back: the airport is once again in Hungarian hands,” he said.
The purchase involving state-owned Corvinus Zrt acquiring an 80 percent stake was made in partnership with French-owned Vinci Airports, which acquired 20 percent, the minister said.
The purchase price was 3.1 billion euros. An agreement was reached with a consortium of lenders on extending 1.44 billion euros of loans taken out by Budapest Airport’s former owners, AviAlliance, owned by Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board.
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