Earnings of oligarchs’ company collapse after brokering weapons deal

The Hungarian Defense Forces acquired dozens of the Turkish Nurol Holding’s armored vehicles (“Gidrán”) through HT Division Zrt., a company co-owned by Hungarian oligarch Szíjj László and Turkish government-linked Suat Karakus. Despite HT Division making billions of HUFs from the deal, last year, the company’s revenues plummeted to just a tenth of the previous year, resulting in a HUF 700 million loss.

The purchase of 10 Turkish-made Gidrán armored vehicles by the Hungarian Defense Forces was announced after-the-fact at the end if 2020, with the added statement that it will buy 40 more. The interesting thing about the deal is that the Defense Forces did not buy the Gidráns directly from the Turkish manufacturer, but from an intermediary company, HT Division Zrt.

The two owners of HT Division are a Hungarian and a Turkish oligarch, both close to their country’s governments: László Szíjj, who has made his fortune in construction-related public procurements, and Suat Karakus, an employee of sorts to Adnan Polat, a friend of Turkish President Recep Erdogan and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

The price of the Gidrans has never been discussed by any official in the Hungarian government, and the details of the purchase have been classified for 30 years due to alleged national security concers. However, the annual reports that HT Division Zrt., the intermediary company was obliged to submit, at least gives us an idea how much they earned for brokering the Gidran deal.

In 2020 the company reported a profit of HUF 479 million,

• in 2021 a loss of HUF 271 million,
• in 2022 a profit of HUF 2.6 billion,
• in 2023 a profit of HUF 2.7 billion.
• However, the financial statements of HT Division Zrt. for last year are not nearly as bright:

The company’s turnover in 2024 was only a tenth of that in 2023, and it made a loss of 700 million forints.

Turnover, or net sales, has plummeted: the reports show HUF 17 billion (EUR 42.5 million) in 2023, and only HUF 1.8 billion (EUR 4.5 million) in 2024. All of this was from domestic sales, according to the company’s balance sheet, meaning that they sold nothing abroad last year (in 2023, their export sales revenue was only HUF 5 million).

HT Division Zrt.’s capital also fell significantly in 2024: last year, it had roughly HUF 1.7 billion (EUR 4.33 million) instead of HUF 5.6 billion (EUR 14.18 million). In addition, the amount of its funds has also fallen sharply: from around HUF 7.5 billion (EUR 18.86 million) in 2023, it had only HUF 2.3 billion (EUR 5.77 million) last year. There is no mention of dividends in the AGM resolution, so it seems that Szíjj did not take out any money from the company after last year’s losses.

From 2023 onwards, HT Divison Zrt’s balance sheets have been presented in euros instead of forints, but they always indicated the exchange rate they used. In the 2023 balance sheet they converted 1 euro to 382.78 forints and in the 2024 balance sheet to 410.09 forints. For simplicity’s sake we have used an exchange rate of 400 in this article.

More Gidrans arriving soon

Gidrans are coming from Turkey rather slowly. The first 10 vehicles arrived in Hungary at the end of 2020 and were delivered to Tata, the barracks of the 25th Klapka György Rifle Brigade of the Hungarian Air Force, in February 2021. The next 13 Gidrans will arrive from Turkey in June 2024 – first to the HT Division’s factory in Kaposvár and from there to the barracks in Tata. Subsequently, 10 more Gidrans arrived in Tata in early October 2024, followed by another 15 at the end of the month. Then, at the beginning of November last year, Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovnicky said that “the Gidrans have reached the planned number of units, 48 of them are in service”.

But another delivery is expected soon, because Szalay-Bobrovnicky announced in February this year that

56 more Gidrans would be delivered to the Hungarian Defence Forces.

The Minister made the announcement from the Nurol Makina factory in Turkey, where he and MP Péter Hoppál had visited the 100th Gidran produced there.

Péter Hoppál at the Gidrán factory in Ankara on 3 February 2025 (photo: Péter Hoppál/Facebook)

Hoppál’s appearance may seem surprising at first glance, as he is a Fidesz member of parliament from the 2nd constituency of Baranya County, Pécs-Komló, and is best known for having been Minister of State for Culture between 2014-2018 and from May 2022 to February 2023. Since then, however, the government has not let go of his hand: first as Ministerial Commissioner for Priority Cultural Affairs, then as Government Commissioner for the preparation and implementation of the 2024 Hungarian-Turkish Cultural Year, and this year as Minister for the Hungarian-Turkish Year of Science and Innovation.

The Defence Forces’ long-term plans included the purchase of 300 Gidrans in 2020. By last autumn, the plan was as high as 400-450 vehicles. In autumn 2023, Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky announced that Hungarian Gidrans would be produced in Győr, without HT Divison Zrt. Instead, they would by a consortium of the Hungarian subsidiary of the Turkish Nurol Makina, Nurol Makina Hungary Kft., N7 Holding National Defence Industrial Innovation Zrt. and RÁBA Automotive Holding Nyrt.

According to a Facebook post by the Hungarian company Nurol Makina, the Szalay-Bobrovniczky family visited the last Gidrans made in Turkey at the Ankara factory in February this year – the rest will be assembled in Győr.

Spacehips, ladybugs, digital soldiers

However, HT Division’s finances could soon be booming again, as more Gidrans will soon be arriving from Turkey through them, and perhaps domestic production will finally start.

The joint company of László Szíjj and Suat Karakus is also venturing into other industries. On the HT Division website, “Vehicles” is no longer the only section. It now also includes “Unmanned Systems” and “Digital Soldier”, as well as “Border Security”, “Space Industry” and “Electro-Optics”. In the latter, they say that “we have already invested in a similar infrastructure in Turkey and we are now working to make it a reality in Hungary”. And under space, it says that “we aim to join small satellite imaging space programs”.

The most interesting, however, is the section on unmanned systems, which seems to be the project that is closest to being implemented. “(…) HT Division Zrt. is working in close cooperation with its Turkish partners on the domestic introduction of a military UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) concept that would enhance the operational capabilities of the Hungarian Defense Forces.

HT Division’s exhibition at Eurosatori 2024 in June (photo: company Facebook page)

The aim of this project is to develop a domestically produced UGV platform that can compete with international competitors in all areas and is capable of performing a wide range of tasks at any time of the day, such as cargo transport or towing, personal protection or even armed reconnaissance. It is designed to accommodate gun turrets, missiles and guided missiles, or even drones, depending on the application.

The first prototype has already been presented to decision makers. It is a 6X6 diesel-powered multi-purpose UGV called “Katica” (“Ladybug”).

Following the valuable feedback received on the first prototype, work has started on the second prototype, which has a crawler design and a hybrid engine.”

On the website of HT Division Zrt. there is a photo of the Katica developed by the company, but it is not of very good quality, you cannot see the vehicle properly. Fortunately, they took it to Eurosatory, the biggest international exhibition for the defense and security industry, last year and proudly announced it on their Facebook page.

For the 2024 event in France, the HT Division stand was built by a Turkish company, which also carefully photographed its work, probably for reference. And these exhibition photos show two ladybirds: a smaller green one, and a larger sand-colored one. The latter is a crawler, presumably the “second prototype” mentioned by the company, built after the first version was “presented to the makers”.