MÁV CEO still hopes for HUF 300bn debt consolidation

Although the consolidation of state-owned Hungarian railway company MÁV's HUF 300bn in debt is off the agenda for now, chairman-CEO Ferenc Szarvas still expects it to happen, he said in an interview published in the fresh issue of business daily HVG.
"Today, too, I trust the consolidation will take place," Szarvas said when asked about the lack of the consolidation in the 2012 budget bill.
National Development Ministry state secretary Pál Völner said a week earlier that the earlier planned HUF 300bn debt consolidation at MÁV was off the agenda.
Consolidating the debt would relieve MÁV of paying an annual HUF 40bn-45bn in principal repayments and HUF 15bn-20bn in interest costs from its operating costs, thus freeing up money for projects which result in efficiency savings, Szarvas said.
In addition to the HUF 300bn in debt, MÁV has some HUF 2,000bn in implicit debt, he said.
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