Hungary is aiming to become a big player in Europe’s space industry.
4iG, which made nearly $1.7 billion last year, wants to create a complete space company by making investments inside and outside Hungary.
“We would like to develop, design, manufacture and test our own satellites,” said István Sárhegyi, the acting CEO of 4iG’s space and defense division.
He explained they don’t want to own rockets or launch sites but do want to operate satellites using their ground stations and focus on data from space.
Out of over 8,000 people working for 4iG in southeastern Europe, nearly 200 are dedicated to expanding the company’s space projects.
Sárhegyi stated that 4iG has the funds to grow its team and capabilities to become a top space company in Europe.
“We are not just visioning and dreaming,” he added.
Journey to space
After buying Hungarian telco DIGI in 2021, 4iG decided to acquire 51% of Israeli operator Spacecom to fast-track its space ambitions.
Spacecom uses a satellite from a geostationary slot leased from Hungary, covering Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
This lease, set to expire in 2024, is now being renegotiated.
4iG’s joint venture, CarpathiaSat, plans to order Hungary’s first privately owned geostationary satellite after taking over the slot.
But issues with the Israeli government and Spacecom’s finances have slowed down these plans.
4iG currently holds only a 20% stake in Spacecom amid reported concerns from Israel’s government about the operator’s satellites coming under the control of a company with ties to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
4iG hopes a $150 million loan it agreed to lend Spacecom to repay other debts, under a financial settlement recently approved by an Israeli court, will help move things forward.
“We will see after the debt settlement process what the next steps are in the future,” he mentioned.
“But it is a strict and very long process, especially with Israeli law and other legislation.”
LEO ambition
For its first geostationary satellite, CarpathiaSat will seek international help for manufacturing.
To develop non-geostationary satellites, 4iG bought a 45% stake in REMRED Space Technologies earlier this year.
“This is the largest investment in Hungary’s history regarding the space sector,” said Sárhegyi, who co-founded REMRED and owns the other 55%.
REMRED is working on subsystems for major NASA and European Space Agency programs, including the Artemis lunar mission.
4iG is also investing around $25 million to build a facility for producing non-geostationary satellites up to 400 kilograms.
“First, we would like to develop our own small satellite bus for Earth observation purposes,” Sárhegyi said, and later add other types of payloads like communication.
Space ecosystem
REMRED is one of three main parts of 4iG’s space strategy.
4iG Space and Defence Technologies also wants to grow its ground infrastructure to control and operate its own satellites.
The third part involves analyzing Earth observation data from their satellites to sell to customers.
“We have the data centers for it,” Sárhegyi said, “so we have several synergies with our telecommunication leg [and] we don’t have to invest a lot.”
Meanwhile, 4iG is looking for more companies to buy to speed up its space plans.
In July, the company announced plans to buy the Hungarian customer base of Canal+, a French media giant, adding 155,000 satellite TV subscribers.
