The Hungarian authorities completed the acquisition of Budapest Airport in cooperation with the French group Vinci against more than 4 billion euros, an act of “strategic importance”, the nationalist prime minister declared with satisfaction today Viktor Orban.

“The Hungarian state will take an 80% stake through the national investment fund Corvinus, announced the Minister of Economy Marton Nagy. He expressed satisfaction at the return of the airport to “national hands”, almost twenty years after the privatization which was described as a “historic mistake”.

Vinci Airports, a subsidiary of Vinci Concessions, acquired the remaining 20% ​​and becomes, through this transaction, “the operator of the platform”.

It is “an assignment with a remaining term of more than 55 years expiring in 2080,” the company said in a separate statement.

Vinci, which is already present in Portugal, Great Britain, France and Serbia, strengthens with this acquisition its presence in this sector.

With the release expected to arrive in 2024 at the record level of 17 million passengers, Budapest Airport is currently the 39th busiest in Europe, according to Eurocontrol.

The airport has big ambitions in tourism and freight transport, mainly by developing connections with China, which became the first investor in Hungary.

The amount of the transaction amounts to 3.1 billion euros, to which is added a net debt of 1.2 billion euros outstanding from the previous owners, namely the German company AviAlliance.

With a high level of debt, the Hungarian government had to divest several assets to be able to finance this acquisition.

It is of “strategic importance”, Orban commented today in his radio interview. “We have recovered a unique asset that we should always keep,” he said, hoping “it will quickly increase in value.”

He welcomed the participation of the French, “among the best in the world” in this field, and spoke of “plans for the subsequent involvement of the Qataris”.

Since Viktor Orbán returned to power in 2010, the Hungarian state has reinvested in several sectors of the economy, including banking and telecommunications.

Orban explains that he sought to create one “Hungarian business class” and recovering capital held, until he came to power, by large international conglomerates that benefited from the post-Communist era privatization wave.