Property
EUR 39 mn real estate fund taken over by Hungary's 'Team Mészáros'
Diófa Real Estate Fund manages 11.9 billion (EUR 39 mn) forints worth of assets, which makes it the 9th largest on the local market. The first three based on assets managed are real estate funds owned by Erste and OTP, and MPT Real Estate Fund, also a Diófa unit. The latter is available also for retail clients.
Diófa Real Estate Fund owns, among other assets, the following:
Total value of the managed assets and investments exceeds HUF 100 billion, Konzum said in a statement on the website of the stock exchange.
MKB’s Real Estate Fund recorded the highest six-month yield of 6.6% at the end of June, followed by Q1 Real Estate Development Investment Fund (5.1%) and Raiffeisen Real Estate Fund “A" (4.5%).
Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Konzum has the world’s best-performing stock this year, its shares soaring more than fiftyfold on the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) at one point. In contrast, Konzum’s sales last year plummeted 99% and its staff was slashed by 86%. Now the company has a market value of about USD 142 mn.
“Maybe I’m smarter" than Mark Zuckerberg, said Lőrinc Mészáros, a former gas fitter who in February sparked the rally when he bought a 20% stake in Konzum, speaking to reporters that month.
Since 2014, Mészáros’s wealth has increased fifteenfold, making him Hungary’s fifth-richest citizen, according to financial website Napi.hu, with an estimated net worth of USD 460 million, with businesses in construction, the media (newspapers, TV), wineries, campgrounds and a portfolio of hotels.
In a 2014 interview with the weekly Heti Válasz, Mészáros credited hard work plus “God, luck, and Viktor Orbán" for his fortune.
Filings with regulators don’t show that Mészáros has sold significant numbers of Konzum shares, but independent watchdogs and members of the opposition say his relationship with Orbán presents, at a minimum, the appearance of conflicts of interest.
“Mészáros is a front for Orbán," says Ákos Hadházy, co-chairman of the LMP party, who quit Fidesz in 2013 after alleging it was riddled with corruption. “And Orbán is omnipotent in Hungary."
“I’ve never had and never will have a straw man," Orbán told Parliament in April in response to a question about his ties to his old friend.
“We’re friends, but that doesn’t give me any financial benefits," Mészáros told reporters in February. He’s also said bids for procurements are open to anyone.
Konzum, which was founded as a retailer a year before the fall of the Iron Curtain, was listed on the BSE in 1990, but it merely bounced along in penny stock territory. That changed when Mészáros announced in February that he had acquired a stake in the company, fuelling speculation that the purchase would spark a rally even though the company’s 2016 sales were just USD 91,000.
“Kids, state funding is about to pour in and the stock price will go skyward!" an investor using the handle Metwolf wrote on Portfolio.
Within two weeks, Konzum’s shares had quadrupled; in July they peaked above 2,800 forint—a gain of 5,400 percent for the year. On July 24, Konzum closed at 1,786 forint, the best return this year out of about 16,000 actively traded stocks with market values above USD 100 million, Bloomberg reported.
Diófa Real Estate Fund owns, among other assets, the following:
- FHB Bank’s headquarters on Üllői út in Budapest;
- the Yacht Camping in Balatonalmádi;
- a 6.3-hectare plot under development in Budakeszié
- a 6.4-hectare real estate in the centre of Balatonalmádi.
Total value of the managed assets and investments exceeds HUF 100 billion, Konzum said in a statement on the website of the stock exchange.
MKB’s Real Estate Fund recorded the highest six-month yield of 6.6% at the end of June, followed by Q1 Real Estate Development Investment Fund (5.1%) and Raiffeisen Real Estate Fund “A" (4.5%).
Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Konzum has the world’s best-performing stock this year, its shares soaring more than fiftyfold on the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) at one point. In contrast, Konzum’s sales last year plummeted 99% and its staff was slashed by 86%. Now the company has a market value of about USD 142 mn.
“Maybe I’m smarter" than Mark Zuckerberg, said Lőrinc Mészáros, a former gas fitter who in February sparked the rally when he bought a 20% stake in Konzum, speaking to reporters that month.
Or maybe Mészáros has better friends
, Bloomberg noted, reminding that he is a former schoolmate of Orbán and the mayor of the PM’s hometown Felcsút.Since 2014, Mészáros’s wealth has increased fifteenfold, making him Hungary’s fifth-richest citizen, according to financial website Napi.hu, with an estimated net worth of USD 460 million, with businesses in construction, the media (newspapers, TV), wineries, campgrounds and a portfolio of hotels.
In a 2014 interview with the weekly Heti Válasz, Mészáros credited hard work plus “God, luck, and Viktor Orbán" for his fortune.
Filings with regulators don’t show that Mészáros has sold significant numbers of Konzum shares, but independent watchdogs and members of the opposition say his relationship with Orbán presents, at a minimum, the appearance of conflicts of interest.
“Mészáros is a front for Orbán," says Ákos Hadházy, co-chairman of the LMP party, who quit Fidesz in 2013 after alleging it was riddled with corruption. “And Orbán is omnipotent in Hungary."
“I’ve never had and never will have a straw man," Orbán told Parliament in April in response to a question about his ties to his old friend.
“We’re friends, but that doesn’t give me any financial benefits," Mészáros told reporters in February. He’s also said bids for procurements are open to anyone.
Konzum, which was founded as a retailer a year before the fall of the Iron Curtain, was listed on the BSE in 1990, but it merely bounced along in penny stock territory. That changed when Mészáros announced in February that he had acquired a stake in the company, fuelling speculation that the purchase would spark a rally even though the company’s 2016 sales were just USD 91,000.
“Kids, state funding is about to pour in and the stock price will go skyward!" an investor using the handle Metwolf wrote on Portfolio.
Within two weeks, Konzum’s shares had quadrupled; in July they peaked above 2,800 forint—a gain of 5,400 percent for the year. On July 24, Konzum closed at 1,786 forint, the best return this year out of about 16,000 actively traded stocks with market values above USD 100 million, Bloomberg reported.
