Hungary seeks ‘friendly’ co-investor for Budapest Airport: part one – sharing the burden

Central Europe is a region that airport investors have never shied away from in the past, with IFM investing latterly in Vienna Airport and both BAA plc and an AviAlliance-led consortium taking majority (and eventually 100%) control at Budapest Airport.

But it is also a region where there have been notable failures of privatisation, including examples where governments have suddenly pulled the plug on a deal while the ink was still wet.

That is not going to happen at Budapest, but it is an open secret that the long-serving prime minister would like to retrieve the gateway airport from the private sector, and the latest plan to co-opt a 'friendly' investor to help it do that might work.

The private sector, for its part, needs to play its cards carefully.

This is part one of a two-part report.