Hungarian specialty: trust foundations, not the state benefits from record profits

Despite record profits of state-owned companies, shareholders of public trust foundations will benefit the most from the two biggest Hungarian company’s record-breaking year.

Hungarian public trust foundations can receive more than HUF 91 billion (EUR 242 million) in dividends, 24.hu reports. Although the two largest Hungarian state-owned firms recorded previously unprecedented profits in 2022, the state and citizens won’t see any profit. Instead, the large sums will land in the hands of shareholders.

Record profits despite economic hardship

Despite the fuel price caps and the widely condemned excess profit tax, in 2022 the Hungarian national oil company MOL recorded a historic profit of HUF 628 billion (EUR 1,6 billion). MOL’s board of directors has proposed a payout of HUF 287 billion (EUR 761 million) from last year’s profit to shareholders. This is a 15 percent increase from last year’s payout.

At the same time, the Richter pharmaceutical company is set to pay HUF 90 billion (EUR 238 million) in dividends. The jump in dividends is much larger in the case of Richter, as it grew by 73 percent in just one year compared to 2022.

For these two companies alone, the beneficiary trust foundations will receive dividends of HUF 91 billion (EUR 242 million) instead of the state. These include the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) talent institution, which is under the leadership of Balázs Orbán, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s political director, and the Maecenas Universitatis Corvini (MUC) Foundation, which is the parent foundation of the Corvinus University of Budapest. These two foundations will receive HUF 36 billion (EUR 96 million) each in dividends.