(Bloomberg) -- Shares of 4iG Nyrt., a Hungarian telecommunications company, surged to the highest in more than two years after its chairman got to present the company’s plans to billionaire Elon Musk.
4iG Chairman Gellert Jaszai met with Musk along with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who visited Mar-a-Lago for a sit-down with President-Elect Donald Trump.
Backed by state contracts, subsidized corporate bonds and loans, 4iG has transformed itself from a small technology company into an international holding, with Orban praising it as a national champion. It has also formed a joint defense venture with Germany’s Rheinmetall AG and has branched into satellite and drone manufacturing.
“In addition to reviewing the 4iG satellite program, the parties explored prospects for artificial intelligence development, as well as opportunities for enhanced Hungarian–American cooperation in commercial and technological fields,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday regarding the meeting with Musk.
The stock jumped as much as 9.1% to the highest since August 2022. It traded up 7.4% at 870 forint as of 12:32 p.m. in Budapest, valuing the company at 262 billion forint ($670 million).
The meeting marks “the first important step” in expanding cooperation between the parties, Jaszai said.
In November, 4iG presented its satellite program dubbed HUSAT, which it said was the first in the region to develop satellite-based telecommunications and Earth observation capabilities driven by private investment.
As part of the program, a geostationary telecommunication satellite and eight low Earth orbit observation satellites are to be deployed by 2032.
--With assistance from Andras Gergely and Krystof Chamonikolas.
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