The Hungarian state has purchased British-Austrian-owned company Hirtenberger Defence Systems, Gáspár Maróth, the government commissioner in charge of coordinating defence industry development said in an interview published in Monday’s issue of daily Magyar Nemzet.
Hirtenberger has been developing artillery equipment and ammunition for 160 years. Under the contract signed on October 29, the company is now owned by Hungarian-owned HDT Védelmi Ipari (HDT Defense Industry) company, Maróth said, adding that the new owner has no plans to change the way Hirtenberger is managed but Hungarian engineers will be involved in the company’s research and development activity.
The purchase price was kept a business secret at the request of the Austrian partner, the government commissioner said, adding that it was covered from a bank loan.
He said that “with this purchase, we have acquired knowledge in the area of domestic high-caliber ammunition manufacturing that was earlier completely wound up, which would have taken four to five years and billions of taxpayers’ money to achieve”.
MTI
