HungaryTrends – The week in business and finance

Top business and finance stories from the last week:

ERICSSON INAUGURATES EUR 56M BUDAPEST HEADQUARTERS

Swedish networking and telecommunications company Ericsson inaugurated a 56 million euro headquarters and R+D centre in Budapest. Hungarian developer Wing built the 24,000sqm centre and will lease it to Ericsson for a period of seven years. More than 1,700 of Ericsson Hungary’s 2,000 employees work at the site on the banks of the Danube, and over 1,400 of these staff are R+D-focused. Read more HERE.

GROUPAMA ARENA: THE PROFITABLE STADIUM 

Could a football stadium be profitable in Hungary? It seems to be entirely possible. The growing income this year at the Groupama Arena seems to prove that. Read more HERE.

RENTABLE SCOOTER NETWORK LAUNCHED IN BUDAPEST

Online business magazine Forbes reports that Budapest is about to see its first public scooter network, blinkee.city. A Polish company operates the electric scooters and Hungary is their first foreign partner. Read more HERE. 

GOVERNMENT SIGNS STRATEGIC COOPERATION PACT WITH US OIL GIANT EXXONMOBIL 

The Hungarian government signed a strategic cooperation agreement with US oil giant ExxonMobil in Budapest on Friday. Read more HERE.

MET GROUP UNDERGOES MANAGEMENT BUYOUT

Benjamin Lakatos, the CEO of energy trader MET Group, bought out his partners in the company, including Hungary’s MOL, to become majority owner. MET said it plans to draw in further capital to implement a growth strategy. MET, based in Switzerland, trades about 8 percent of the gas consumed in continental Europe.

MAGNUS AIRCRAFT TOPS OUT HUF 5.2BN PLANT IN PÉCS

Hungary’s Magnus Aircraft topped out a 5.2 billion forint plant it is building in Pécs, in south-western Hungary. The plant is expected to be completed by the end of the summer. Magnus Aircraft was the first company in the world to develop a two-seat aircraft made from composite materials and capable of aerobatics. Read more HERE.

GYERMELYI TOJÁS COMPLETES HUF 1.7 BN FEED PLANT

Egg producer Gyermelyi Tojás, a unit of Hungarian pasta maker Gyermelyi, completed a 1.7 billion forint feed plant. The plant has capacity to mix 60,000 tonnes of feed a year, sufficient to supply the company’s chicken farms as output is increased to match a capacity expansion at the parent company.

CORPORATE, RETAIL LENDING STOCK STILL “CYCLICALLY LOW”, NBH SAYS

The National Bank of Hungary acknowledged continued growth in corporate and retail lending last year, but said debt levels in both sectors are “cyclically low in the current favourable environment” in a report. “We found that the extent of indebtedness in both [the corporate and retail] sectors as a proportion of GDP is much lower than the average of the regional peers from a cyclical point of view, and significant capacity is available for an expansion of lending in the current environment,” the NBH said. Read more HERE.

Featured image: www.facebook.com/Blinkeee

Source: MTI