Hungary's Opus Global boosts share capital, shares surge

BUDAPEST: Hungarian holding company Opus Global, part-owned by Lorinc Meszaros, an associate of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said on Friday its share capital could exceed 250 billion forints ($881.15 million) after a series of capital increases.

At 1030 GMT, OPUS shares rose 12.4 percent to a one-month high of 526 forints on the Budapest Stock Exchange, outperforming a flat blue chip index, which was flat.

Opus said based on its board resolutions passed on Thursday, it would gain majority stakes in Meszaros Epitoipari Holding, a construction company with a stock of orders worth around 300 billion forints ($1.06 billion), and the coal-fired Matrai power plant.

At the same time, the company said it would reshuffle its media business, selling Opus Press to Meszaros's Talentis Group, booking a profit of 3 billion forints, OPUS said in a statement.

"The new stakes acquired in the industrial companies will also have a positive impact on OPUS's profitability and an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) worth 20 to 25 billion forints is expected by the company next year," it said.

Opus said the deals would lift its share capital "significantly higher than levels previously expected by management".

Opus said the next step in the consolidation of the business conglomerate would be integrating another Meszaros-linked holding company, Konzum, a deal first announced in October.

Konzum shares gained 10 percent on Friday.

The businesses have said that the joint company could produce EBITDA of about 30 billion forints next year.

By market value, it would rank alongside Magyar Telekom , the fourth-largest blue chip on the Budapest Stock Exchange at 454 billion forints.