Europe needs its own energy champions – and MET Group aims to become one.

“Europe currently does not have a single true energy champion,” said the CEO of MET Group. According to him, this role is filled by two or three major players in the United States and a similar number in China, while in the Middle East, most countries have their own strategically important national energy company. In contrast, Europe’s energy market is far more fragmented, which, in Vigeveno’s view, prevents European companies from achieving a comparable international scale and influence.

According to the CEO of MET Group, the Swiss-headquartered company, which has Hungarian roots, still has significant room for growth and is already competing alongside some of Europe’s largest energy players. By revenue, MET ranks among Switzerland’s 20 largest companies and is comparable in size to well-known European corporations such as MOL and Philips. The Group’s revenue is approximately 30% higher than that of MOL and 50% higher than that of Philips. MET Group is present in 24 countries, with only 6% of its revenue generated in Hungary and 94% coming from its operations across the other 23 countries.

Vigeveno said the company’s ambition is to become one of Europe’s leading energy companies, stressing that this is not merely a long-term vision but a concrete corporate objective.

“We are not simply talking about a vision. We are talking about something we are going to achieve.”

The first pillar of the company’s growth strategy is customer centricity. According to Vigeveno, the customer experience offered by energy providers still lags significantly behind that of many other industries. While banking apps allow customers to monitor their finances almost in real time, energy consumption and related costs are often difficult to understand and track. He believes that digitalisation and a deeper understanding of customer needs therefore present significant opportunities for the energy sector.

The importance of customer relationships is reflected in the company’s earnings profile. According to Vigeveno, approximately 75% of MET Group’s margin is generated by customer-facing businesses, while the remaining 25% comes from trading and optimisation activities. At the same time, a broad customer base strengthens trading operations by creating substantial energy demand, which can then be supported through market positions and optimisation solutions.

The second pillar of the strategy is the development of an integrated natural gas business. Starting from customer demand, MET builds its storage, regasification and LNG procurement positions accordingly. According to the CEO, the company has one of Europe’s most diversified regasification portfolios, with capacity in three terminals in Germany, as well as facilities in Belgium, Spain, Italy and Croatia, while importing LNG into numerous European countries. These positions enable the company to bring LNG, including volumes from the United States, to European markets, contributing to the diversification of energy supply sources.

Vigeveno identified the expansion of the electricity business as the company’s third strategic priority, driven by his expectation that Europe’s electricity demand will at least double in the coming decades. He believes that electrification alone could generate significant growth in demand, while the expansion of data centres and artificial intelligence is likely to create additional consumption.

As a result, MET intends to place increasing emphasis on power generation and related trading activities alongside its traditional natural gas business.

As an example of this strategy, Vigeveno highlighted the Dunamenti Power Plant in Hungary, where gas-fired power generation is combined with battery energy storage and solar power generation. According to him, integrated systems of this kind allow different technologies to complement one another, while enabling MET to improve efficiency through the coordination of generation, storage and trading activities.

The fourth and, in Vigeveno’s view, perhaps most important element of the strategy is preserving the company’s entrepreneurial mindset and culture of personal accountability. He noted that MET began in Budapest around twenty years ago and has since evolved into an independent, Swiss-based energy company operating across Europe. As the company continues to grow, it aims to retain the entrepreneurial spirit and responsibility-driven culture that have been central to its success.

Vigeveno considers the coming decades to be a defining period for the energy industry, as changing customer expectations, the diversification of natural gas supplies and rising electricity demand reshape the European market simultaneously. While MET is already competing alongside some of the world’s largest energy companies, the Group’s long-term ambition is even greater:

“To become a European energy champion that can play a leading role on the global stage.”