(Bloomberg) -- Shares in Hungary’s 4iG Nyrt. jumped to a record high on bets the telecommunications company could be preparing a business deal with Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
The stock surged 17% on Wednesday — the biggest daily advance since 2019 — after Chairman Gellert Jaszai said in a post on LinkedIn that he discussed collaboration and partnership “opportunities” with Tim Hughes, Senior Vice President for Global Business and Government Affairs at SpaceX, during a meeting in Washington.
The stock’s rally began two months ago following the publication of a photo of Jaszai chatting with Musk in Mar-a-Lago during Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban visit to Florida to meet Donald Trump.
Orban is counting on warm relations with the US president to help secure benefits for Hungary’s economy, with his top diplomat meeting officials in Washington on Wednesday. 4iG — a company which has grown thanks to business deals backed by the Hungarian state or directly with it — has become a vehicle for investors to participate in this bet.
The stock is up 88% since Dec. 10, even as it’s not yet clear how 4iG’s nascent satellite business could work with SpaceX. Piotr Raciborski, an analyst at broker Wood & Co. who covers the stock, said “favorable sentiment around high expectations related to peace talks” between the US and Russia about Ukraine, as well as Orban’s close ties with Trump have helped propel 4iG higher in past weeks.
“Today’s share-price move is directly linked to the LinkedIn post,” Raciborski said. “Yet, it’s hard to estimate 4iG’s satellite business since we have no knowledge about it, 4iG hasn’t yet given any guidance of the potential capex, financials or expected return within the unit.”
Last year, 4iG outlined its space program, calling itself the first non-state east European company to develop satellite-based telecommunications and observation capabilities. In 2023, the last full year for which the company has published results, the firm gained nearly 90% of its revenues from telecoms.
In his LinkedIn post, Jaszai didn’t provide many details, saying: “Following our December meeting at Mar-a-Lago with Elon Musk and Prime Minister Viktor Orban, we continued discussions with SpaceX on potential collaborations and partnership opportunities in space technologies, launch services, and Starlink solutions.”
4iG has also recently signed memorandums and agreed to explore potential cooperation with privately-owned US space infrastructure developer Axiom Space Inc and Warsaw-listed satellite maker Creotech Instruments SA.
--With assistance from Andras Gergely.
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