Budapest-listed holding company Appeninn, controlled by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s friend Lorinc Meszaros, has acquired the majority stake in a 37-hectare resort area at Lake Balaton, the contracting parties announced on July 26.

Property management company Appeninn agreed to buy the 74.99% owned by Pro-Mot Hungaria, a joint holding of Israeli property developers Shikun&Binui and AFI Group. Under the agreement, Appeninn will acquire 37 hectares of lakefront property that comprise Club Aliga, a former resort for the communist elite, which was sold to Israeli investors in 2007. 

Appeninn will also acquire the asset management rights for the remaining 10 hectares, which Pro-Mot Hungaria got for 49 years under the 2007 deal. The transaction could be closed by the end of this year. The financial details were not disclosed.

Club Aliga has hosted the likes of Fidel Castro, Mao Zedong, and Yuri Gagarin. The lakeside resort features a 50-acre old-growth forest with 2km of beachfront and 10 hectares of ancient park.

Hungary's long-ruling communist leader Janos Kadar reportedly said once during his regular summer break at Balatonaliga: don’t bother me, unless the World War Three breaks out.

The acquisition fits well into the plan of Appeninn, controlled by Hungarian billionaire Lorinc Meszaros, commonly referred to as the proxy for Orban. Konzum, another holding company of Meszaros and Appeninn, which is converting into a real estate investment trust, has become an active investor in the Lake Balaton area, the top summer holiday destination for Hungarians.

Fidesz entourage active in tourism

Since the government launched a HUF300bn (€925mn) scheme with HUF150bn in grants for commercial accommodation developments, businessmen close to Orban have gone on an acquisition trail, buying up plots, lakeside camps and hotels one after the other. 

Companies of the prime minister’s son-in-law, Istvan Tiborcz, have gained control of hotels and yacht harbours. Orban’s eldest daughter, Rachel, who graduated at École hôtelière de Lausanne, one of the best hospitality management schools in the world, has taken an active role in the preparation of the government’s new tourism strategy, industry sources confirmed.

The government declared tourism as an industry of strategic importance last year in a bid to boost the contribution of the sector to 16% of GDP by 2030, from 10% at present.

In a presentation of its business plan published in June, Appeninn put the gross asset value of its portfolio, which included 39 commercial properties at the time, at just over €101m. The properties had a gross leasable area of more than 82,000m2.

Appeninn projected the value of the portfolio would swell to €479m by 2022 as the gross leasable area of the properties is to increase to 242,000m2. 

The announcement of the deal lifted the share price by 6% to HUF590. On a one-year horizon, Appeninn's share price has fluctuated between HUF212 and HUF1173.