MALÉV AIRLINES FOR RUSSIA?

The State Privatization and Holding Company will decide about the tender for the Hungarian Airlines today.

Sources close to the leadership of Malév claim that János Veres, Minister of Finance has ordered recently the State Privatization and Holding Company (ÁPV Rt.) to start negotiations with the Siberian consortium KrasAir. The Press Department of the Ministry of Finance refuted this information saying that no order was given to ÁPV Rt. and it was not even possible while ÁPV Rt. has not given an official statement about the question.

According to leaked out informations the Spanish and Irish bids have been unacceptable and apart from the Siberian offer there is only Aviation Solutions, an investment consortium supported by OTP Bank in competition. The director of ASBK Ltd is Ferenc Kovács, former director general of Malév, and one of his partners in the consortium is Attila Virágh, closely connected with the Free Democrats, one of the earlier business partners of Ferenc Gyurcsány through Perfekt Company.

The Russian state is the majority owner of KrasAir and its director general, Boris Abramovich has maintained a good relationship with leading Socialist politicians. Press informations refer to the person of László Puch or János Veres who may stand behind the Russian consortium and all the six trade unions in Malév have expressed their concern over informations leaked out from Malév to help the chances of KrasAir. The Hungarian background for the bid of KrasAir is provided by Airbridge Company, registered on April 6, 2005 with a capital of HUF 20 million, led by Kálmán Kiss, retired high- ranking officer of the border-guards, Magdolna Költő, and Péter Leonov who represents Boris Abramovich in Hungary. Magdolna Költő is managing director or owner of several firms belonging to Resonator Ltd owned by András Szabó, president of Győr-Sopron-Ebenfurt Railway Company since 2002, high-ranking official in Hungarian sports life.

Magdolna Költő is said to be András Szabó’s common-law wife who has been a member of the board of directors of Malév and she had access to all confidential data of the Hungarian Airlines. In the supervising committee of Airbridge Company one can find János Zubek, until the beginning of the ’90-es the spokesman of the border-guards who speaks a fluent Russian as he graduated from the Academy of Social Sciences in the Soviet Union in the early ’eighties but later he was dismissed from the border-guards for his business activities not compatible with his position.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó