Orbán’s son-in-law makes the list of richest Hungarians

The Prime Minister’s family got on the list of the wealthiest Hungarian businessmen: Ráhel Orbán’s husband, István Tiborcz, reached this elite group. As reported by 24.hu, Orbán’s son-in-law debuts as 32^nd and his net worth is estimated to be around €108 million.

At the age of 32, he is the country’s youngest billionaire when calculating in forints (€3 million). His network of companies are proliferating, especially the ones operating in the real estate sector; his activity includes acquiring real estate in the Castle District, renovating a palace in Tura and converting a historic building on Andrássy Út into a hotel. His main company, BDPST Zrt, which makes up 20.5% of his assets, was incorporated into Lőrinc Mészáros’ stock exchange company Appeninn Nyrt. This was a milestone; for the first time finance moved publicly between Mészáros and the Orbán family.

Tiborcz’s wealth has grown exponentially. According to 2017 metrics, his wealth was around €12 million at the time, which is just over 10% of the latest estimates. He was not able to make the list that year, because he would have had to have assets around the value of €25 million to enter this privileged circle.

Orbán’s son-in-law started with a business called Elios Zrt, which fitted public lighting for municipal governments. He was already making great strides in the first half of this decade; By 2014/2015 the company registered profits of €34 million and the owners received over €3 million each. The EU funded most of these projects, so the European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF, ordered the Hungarian government to investigate. Of course, the Hungarian authorities did nothing. Tiborcz sold the company in 2015 and profited around €9 million from the sale.

Based on the latest calculations, Tiborcz has also become one of the most influential Hungarians. He was placed at 22^nd, ahead of President János Áder. However, Tiborcz was unable to surpass his wife Ráhel Orbán, who is positioned at 19.

At the top of the list remained OTP’s chairman and CEO Sándor Csányi and Lőrinc Mészáros, who have assets valued at €1.1 billion and €914 million respectively.  With a net worth of around €865 million, György Gattyán, who is the owner of the Docler Group, came third. These networks are highly interconnected; 10^th was Mészáros’ business partner László Szijj with assets worth around €340 million.

The 100 richest Hungarians had a total net worth of around €14.3 billion in 2018, which is around 3 times higher than 10 years previously. The list has changed considerably; 55 of those who made this elite circle a decade ago were nowhere to be found in 2018.

Most influential Hungarians

Viktor Orbán is followed by Sándor Csányi and Lőrinc Mészáros in the list of most influential Hungarians. At fourth is the president of the Hungarian National Bank György Matolcsy. Head of the Cabinet Antal Rogán and Minister of the Interior Sándor Pintér made significant strides, attaining 5^th and 9th respectively.  The first 20 on this list are people who are either Fidesz politicians or businessmen close to the government.

Last month we communicated that Hungary’s biggest ever railway project has gone to Mészáros. Wealth inequality has also increased in Hungary.

Featured image: https://www.facebook.com/orbanviktor/

Source: 24.hu