BYD Banks on a Political Insider in Hungary While Investors Eye a Margin Turnaround
Published on 07/16/2026 at 15:33 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
BYD has found an unlikely new asset in its European expansion playbook: a former foreign minister with a deep Rolodex in Brussels and Beijing. Péter Szijjártó, the architect of BYD’s first European assembly plant in Hungary, is leaving parliament to lead the Chinese EV giant's international relations, a move that sent the stock up 3.46 percent to €10.12 on Thursday and extended a seven-day rally of 8.80 percent.
The timing is anything but accidental. BYD is weeks away from beginning vehicle assembly in Szeged, a factory that Szijjártó helped secure by negotiating 224 rounds of talks with the company. The Hungarian state chipped in roughly €63.7 million to support the subsequent research center and European headquarters in Budapest. For a Chinese carmaker racing to sidestep EU import tariffs on EVs, a staffer who knows exactly where the levers are is worth the political baggage now weighing down his appointment. Critics, including Prime Minister Péter Magyar, accuse Szijjártó of having long acted in the company's interest while in office.
The stock's jump this week sits atop a broader recovery that began in late June. Since touching a 52-week low of €8.03 on June 30, BYD's shares have clawed back roughly 26 percent. Still, the paper is down 7.64 percent year-to-date and a steep 25.19 percent from a year ago, nearly 31 percent below its 12-month high of €14.80. The recovery, in other words, is nascent — and hangs on more than a high-profile hire.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying BYD?
What excites analysts is not Szijjártó's automotive expertise but the export-driven margin story that could justify further upside. BYD reported a jarring first quarter: net profit collapsed 55.38 percent year-on-year, yet the gross margin climbed to 18.81 percent, its highest in nearly twelve months. That combination — falling profits but rising operational efficiency — hints that the core business is not bleeding. Goldman Sachs has called the first quarter the likely profit trough, noting that overseas sales jumped from 21 percent to 46 percent of total volume. In May alone, BYD sold 160,644 vehicles abroad, up 80.4 percent from a year earlier and a record.
The bear case is equally loud. The domestic price war in China has not let up, operating profit fell for the first time since 2021, and management has flagged rising R&D spending and higher financing needs. Any margin recovery remains fragile if the home market keeps squeezing. The stock currently trades 1.19 percent above its 50-day moving average of €9.67 but sits 8.24 percent below its 200-day average of €10.66 — a technical picture that mirrors the market's indecision.
The next clear test will be the group's half-year numbers for 2026. Until then, monthly export tallies and the progress of the Szeged plant will be the best gauges of whether BYD can translate a political coup and an export surge into sustainable earnings. Szijjártó’s role in that equation is symbolic of a larger shift: for BYD, winning in Europe now depends as much on navigating regulation and relationships as on selling cars.
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