BUDAPEST, Hungary_The Hungarian government will pay Canada's Airport Development Corp. as much as 18 billion forints (US$83.4 billion) after it lost a lawsuit over the operation of a terminal at Budapest's Ferihegy Airport.
"The government will pay within the 30-day limit imposed by the court," Finance Minister Janos Veres said Thursday.
The Canadian company won a contract in 1994 to build and operate Ferihegy's 2B terminal until 2010 in a joint venture with Hungarian state-owned LRI. The Hungarian government subsequently anulled the contract in 2001 and handed over to state-owned Budapest Airport.
Last year, the government sold the airport to Britain's BAA PLC for US$2.20 billion, the largest single privatization deal since the end of communism in 1990.
Veres said the payout ordered by a London-based arbitration court would not change the anticipated budget deficit 10.1 percent this year.
Copyright: Associated Press WorldStream -- 10/6/06
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