In less than a year, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky purchased the former Tölgyes Manor, located in Rizapuszta – on the border of Badacsonytomaj and Káptalantóti – which boasts a panoramic view of Lake Balaton. He then acquired the neighbouring winery and its associated facilities as well. Many years ago, both properties belonged to the Defence Minister’s family, meaning he has essentially reclaimed them. The purchase price remains unknown, but the market value of the properties could be in the billions.
The Communists took it, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky took it back
Since November 2023, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky’s real estate holdings in the Balaton region have expanded by 45,000 square metres, or four and a half hectares, as revealed in the minister’s asset declaration. Politicians are not required to disclose the exact locations of properties they acquire within a given municipality, meaning the specifics of their purchases often remain undisclosed — partly because they rarely publicise them.
Szalay-Bobrovniczky also did not share details of his property acquisitions with the public, so until now, all that has been known was that he purchased a 14,000-square-metre withdrawn major estate in 2023,
- A nearly 20,000-square-metre industrial site in Badacsonytomaj in 2024,
- a 1-hectare withdrawn facility in Káptalantóti in 2024,
- and 2,124 square metres of vineyard land, also in Káptalantóti.
We posed several questions to the minister regarding his Balaton real estate acquisitions, but the Ministry of Defence’s press department provided only the following brief response:
Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky has fully complied with all obligations in his asset declaration; we ask for this to be acknowledged.
However, the full picture has gradually emerged. In 2023, the minister purchased the former Tölgyes Manor, situated in the saddle between Mount Gulács and Tóti Hill, offering a view of the Badacsony Bay of Lake Balaton.
The estate that constitutes today’s Rizapuszta was bought by Bálint Szalay in the 1880s for 12,000 forints, according to archival data reported by likebalaton.hu. Szalay Bálint built the manor in 1896 for his wife, Polish-born Polczer Liza, whom he affectionately called Riza. The names Riza and Rizapuszta were established in her honour, and locals still refer to the building as the Rizapuszta Manor.
The Szalay family lived here permanently, cultivating vineyards across 12 hectares and becoming renowned wine merchants. According to contemporary newspapers, Szalay Bálint developed a model farm in the area, constructing a grape-processing facility, wine cellar, steward’s residence, servant quarters, stables, and granaries.
In other words, the estate previously belonged to the Defence Minister’s family, but after World War II, the Szalay family was reportedly given two days by the Communists to leave their home, allowed to take only what could fit on a horse-drawn cart.
After that, the estate became a ‘public free-for-all’, as reported by Likebalaton. The minister’s Wikipedia page provides a detailed account of the Szalay family’s past: Bálint Szalay (1858–1905) and Terézia Polczer (1862–1925) were the paternal great-great-grandparents of Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky.
Jumping forward in time, the estate, including the manor, belonged to the Badacsony Wine Cooperative between 1993 and 2017 as per the property registry documents. After the cooperative was terminated, the property was transferred to Alaház Projekt Ltd., a company owned by former Allianz CEO Péter Kisbenedek. (The company is now called FinTrust Tanácsadó Ltd.) The operation of the manor was entrusted to Tölgyes Event Ltd. and Péter Vincze, who is also associated with Kikötő Restaurant and the Fügefeszt gastronomy festival.
This company was among those that, following a secret meeting in 2021 – as our newspaper previously reported – received special tourism funding. Tölgyes Event Ltd. was granted 48 million forints for the development of the Tölgyes Manor restaurant, event venue, and accommodation facility. However, Péter Vincze, the former managing director of Tölgyes Manor, told our newspaper that the funding was not in fact granted for the development of Tölgyes Manor:
We operated a wedding venue at Tölgyes Manor as a rental property, and in connection with this, we established an accommodation site in Szigliget, which is still in operation today. But we no longer have any connection to that property
– Péter Vincze told us. In other words, the funding was not used to develop Tölgyes Manor.
The estate was purchased by the husband of Budapest Fidesz-president Alexandra Szentkirályi at the end of 2023. According to our sources, construction is currently underway on the site, but we do not know more details, since – as mentioned earlier – the minister has not shared any specifics about his property acquisition.
A family winery with one of Balaton’s largest processing facilities
Next to the former Tölgyes Manor is Nagy & Nagy Winery, which the Minister of Defence purchased in the summer of 2024.
The business, launched in 1999 by Lajos Nagy and Csaba Nagy, administratively belongs to two municipalities, located on the border of Káptalantóti and Badacsonytomaj. According to the winery’s website, the business is now run by Lajos Nagy’s two daughters, Noémi and Franciska. For a long time, the winery operated in Uzsa at a facility with a 16,000-hectolitre capacity, but in 2018 the family purchased Rizapuszta, expanding their capacity by an additional 40,000 hectolitres. The former estate and later cooperative cellar constitute, according to the winery’s website, one of the largest processing, storage, and bottling facilities in the Balaton region. According to the property registry, Szalay-Bobrovniczky also purchased the wine production facility in the summer of 2024, though as far as we know, the Nagy family continues to handle wine production.
We reached out to the winery’s managing director to ask why they had sold their family business, but Lajos Nagy simply stated that he did not wish to comment.
What is evident from the property records is that when the Nagy family bought Rizapuszta in 2018, a universal mortgage of 500 million forints was registered, meaning they took out a loan for the purchase, using three properties as collateral. However, in 2024, when the minister acquired the properties, this mortgage was removed. Company data shows that the business was not exactly a goldmine – its net profit for 2023 was only 401,000 forints. Opten’s data also reveals that Nagy & Nagy Ltd.’s revenue in 2023 decreased by 20% compared to 2022.
According to our information, this estate was also in the minister’s family ownership many years ago. We asked Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky about this, too, but he ignored our questions in this case as well. However, this is hinted at by the fact that the winery’s website states that the estate, originally owned by the Győr Cathedral Chapter, was purchased by the aforementioned Bálint Szalay in 1885. The Communists, just as they did with the manor, took this property from the Szalay family as well.
As far as we know, the Minister of Defence did not purchase the Nagy family’s vineyard, but according to his asset declaration, he did buy 2,124 square metres of vineyard in Káptalantóti.
Billions in annual income
Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky has been Hungary’s Minister of Defence since 2022. Following his appointment, he withdrew from his business dealings with companies trading with the Hungarian government, yet, according to his asset declarations, he still receives billions in income each year. Financially, therefore, reacquiring family estates does not pose a challenge for him.
In his most recent declaration, submitted in January, his income far exceeded a billion forints: he took 942 million forints (net 801 million) as a dividend advance and listed an additional 49 million forints in monthly income from one of his business interests, amounting to a further 588 million forints annually.
By qualification, the Minister of Defence is an agricultural engineer. After studying at the University of Gödöllő, he worked as a manager at various multinationals in the financial and telecommunications sectors. He later joined Századvég, the government-affiliated think tank, where he gained a significant position, becoming a co-owner and board member of Századvég Gazdaságkutató Plc. in 2011. Perhaps even more importantly, it was during this period that he established close ties to Árpád Habony, who has long been referred to as the Prime Minister’s informal advisor.
Regarding his public career, Szalay-Bobrovniczky was appointed as Hungary’s ambassador to London in 2016. He returned home from the post in 2020 and immediately stepped into the late Andy Vajna’s shoes, becoming an owner in the highly lucrative Budapest casino business. From this point on, there seemed to be no end to his soaring career, as one giga-deal followed the next. Shortly after joining Dunakeszi Járműjavító (Dunakeszi Vehicle Repair Plant), the company suddenly won a 32-billion-forint contract from MÁV (Hungarian State Railways), after which Szalay-Bobrovniczky and his Russian business partner embarked on a one-billion-euro project to manufacture 1,300 railway carriages for the Egyptian railway.
Next came the defence industry — he acquired a majority stake in the largest Czech aircraft manufacturer with the help of a 53-billion-forint state loan. After his ministerial appointment, his casino shares were transferred to Árpád Habony, while the vehicle repair plant and the aircraft manufacturer ended up in the business network of MOL’s CEO, Zsolt Hernádi.
However, he retained his wealth management company, London Capital Plc., which amassed over 19 billion forints in profits within just three years — easily enough to rank him among Hungary’s wealthiest entrepreneurs.
From this massive profit, it was revealed that Szalay-Bobrovniczky could withdraw 1.625 billion forints in dividends while already serving as Minister of Defence.
London Capital’s success streak ended in 2023, when it reported a 665-million-forint loss. Nonetheless, the company still generated 954 million forints for the Minister of Defence, as he decided to withdraw this amount in dividends in February last year from retained earnings from previous years.
In his latest asset declaration, Szalay-Bobrovniczky did not report any income from some of his company interests, including Uj Clinic Plc. and the government-affiliated V4NA Ltd. However, in the case of SBA Invest Ltd. — in which he is not an owner but a settlor and beneficiary — he listed a monthly income of 49 million forints. At this point, the trail goes cold, as the very nature of trust management is to keep details private. It remains unknown whose assets the SBA Invest Ltd. manages, nor is it public how successful these investments are. Outsiders have no visibility into what assets Szalay-Bobrovniczky has entrusted to SBA or how much they have generated for him.
The post Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky’s expansion around Lake Balaton: Minister purchases manor and winery first appeared on 24.hu.
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