By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary’s nationalist government has repurchased the country’s main international airport as it tries to make Budapest a hub for Chinese tourists.
In one of the most complicated deals since the collapse of Communism, the Hungarian state and an associated investor acquired the Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport for 3.1 billion euros ($3.3 billion), officials said.
Hungarian government-owned Corvinus International Investment and France’s Vinci Airports also assumed a net debt of 1.2 euros billion ($1.3 billion), the cabinet confirmed
Márton Nagy, the national economy minister, said. “We’ve got it back: the airport is once again in Hungarian hands,” he added.
The sellers were German operator AviAlliance GmbH, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte, and Canada-based Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec.
Corvinus will hold an 80 percent stake, while Vinci will own the rest.
MASSIVE BUYBACK
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who returned to power in 2010, has long sought to buy back the airport sold to a consortium led by Germany’s AviAlliance almost two decades ago.
“We have recovered a unique good… Our plan is to rapidly increase its value,” the nationalist leader stressed, praising the French partner’s know-how while evoking future “plans to involve the Qataris.”
It also comes while the prime minister seeks to make Budapest and the rest of Hungary a hub for China’s tourists and investments.
The airport deal was signed less than a month after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Hungary.
While most European Union countries make efforts to “de-risk” their economies from perceived threats posed by China, Hungary has gone in the other direction.
Budapest Airport, Europe’s 39th busiest, estimates it will attract nearly 17 million passengers this year, up from 14.7 million in 2023.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Senate Republicans on Thursday confirmed 48 of President Donald Trump’s executive branch nominees in a single vote, advancing his agenda to fill key government positions after invoking a new rules change last week.
Erika Kirk, the widow of slain born-again Christian conservative activist Charlie Kirk, has been unanimously chosen as the new chief executive officer and chair of the board of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), the influential group her husband founded to rally young Americans behind conservative Christian causes.
Authorities in Indonesia’s Central Java Province have halted construction of a church and related tourism compound after pressure from local council members and Muslim groups amid rising anti-Christian incidents in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, sources confirmed Thursday.
A young Christian man is hiding in Pakistan after being falsely accused of making “blasphemous” comments against Islam, an offence that potentially carries the death penalty under the Islamic nation’s strict blasphemy legislation, Worthy News learned Thursday.
France was gripped by a second wave of nationwide strikes on Thursday, as hundreds of thousands marched against austerity measures and looming budget cuts—unrest that not only deepens the political crisis for President Emmanuel Macron and his new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, but also unfolds in a season many prophecy watchers view as charged with significance.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a broad wave of strikes Thursday evening against Hezbollah military sites in southern Lebanon, escalating its campaign against the Iranian-backed terror group’s Radwan Force.
Three Israeli divisions continued a steady push into Gaza City on Thursday, the third day of Operation Gideon’s Chariots II, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) seek to seize Hamas’ last stronghold in the enclave.