Oligarch’s car dealership continues to perform exceptionally well in public procurement

For four years, the company of Viktor Orbán’s friend Lőrinc Mészáros may provide fleet services to the Hungarian University of Agricultural and Life Sciences for HUF 85.4 million (EUR 214,644). Besides the university, the Mészáros firm has won tons of public procurement procedures, leasing cars to anyone from state-funded research institutes to the National Sports Agency.

Amateurish mistakes, competitors voluntarily capitulating, extra-short deadlines – these are the phenomena we encountered when we analysed the public money contracts tendered for and in many cases won by the car dealership company owned by Lőrinc Mészáros. Mészáros M1 Kft. The company leases cars, mostly for publicly funded institutions, and had a turnover of HUF 18.4 billion (EUR 46.22 million) last year and a profit of HUF 1.1 billion (EUR 2.76 million), according to its latest report.

The M1 Autókereskedő was founded in 2016. The company’s core business is car and light vehicle sales and car rental. In 2017, the company’s annual net revenue was HUF 504 million (EUR 1.27 million), which in three years multiplied to a 46 million-EUR figure in 7 years.

Suspicion of collusion

The company is owned by Talentis Group Investment Servicing Ltd. and MKB Private Equity Fund, both of which are owned by the oligarch Lőrinc Mészáros, long-time ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the richest man in Hungary. As we have reported before, Mészáros M1 Kft. often takes on extra-short delivery deadlines that other – even larger – fleet operators cannot compete with, even if they offer cheaper bids.

However, it is not clear whether some of its competitors are trying to beat Mészáros’s Company.

Mercarius, another successful (in winning public procurement procedures) car lessor seems to collude with M1, with whom it often „competes” for public contracts. When running against each other, the companies often make amateurish mistakes and sometimes withdraw from tenders, seemingly exchanging ‘favours’ by sabotaging their own chances of winning. This have not yet been found suspicious enough by the Competition Authority to warrant an investigation.

Cars for HUN-REN research center

Clients of M1 range widely: for example, in September 2024, the HUN-REN Centre, the nationally funded research network launched a public tender for vehicle rental and fleet management services. The tender was won jointly by Mészáros M1 Kft. and Mészáros M1 Szerviz Kft.

The open call for tenders consisted of two parts, with 3-3 bids for each part. The first part was tendered jointly by MOL Fleet Solution Ltd, Mészáros M1 Ltd, Mészáros M1 Szerviz Ltd and Mercarius Fleottakezelő Ltd. However, MOL Fleet withdrew its bid at the evaluation stage and Mercarius would have been more expensive than the Mészáros companies. In the second phase, MOL Fleet did not withdraw, but the M1’s offer was cheaper, so the bids of MOL Fleet and Mercarius were not evaluated.

Both cars can therefore be delivered by the Mészáros companies:

the SUV for a net price of HUF 16.3 million (EUR 40,955) and the upper mid-range car for a net price of HUF 15.8 million (EUR 39,698).

A seven-seater SUV with a minimum of 190 hp, automatic gearbox, black metallic paint and all-wheel drive, and a five-seater upper mid-size car with a minimum of 250 hp, black metallic paint and black leather seats, will be rented by HUN-REN Centre from the company owned by the Mészáros family.

Competitors disqualified

In February this year, the National Sports Agency launched a public procurement procedure for the long-term rental of passenger cars, small vehicles and commercial vehicles. The publicly funded company wanted to lease 30 mid-size estate cars, 1 SUV, 3 electric vans and 2 commercial vans.

A total of three companies responded to the call: Mészáros M1 Autókereskedő Kft. for HUF 414,662,400 (EUR 1,041,819), DUNA AUTÓ Kereskedelmi és Szolgáltató Zrt. DUNA Auto Trading and Service Ltd. submitted bids of HUF 463,038,624 (EUR 1,163,979), while Porsche Leasing and Service Ltd. submitted bids of HUF 338,528,232 (EUR 850,823). This time, however, the cheapest bid was not the winner, as Porsche was (also) disqualified on the grounds of a disproportionately low price. But DUNA AUTÓ was also eliminated after “failing to comply with its obligation under the call for bids within the prescribed time limit”.

This left only Mészáros M1 Kft. in the running, which won the HUF 414 million (EUR 1.04 million) contract.

Expensive cars for Vets’ University

In May, we wrote that the University of Veterinary Medicine pays around HUF 2 million (EUR 5,025) a month to M1 for the rental of five diesel SUVs for senior executives. The five are leased by the university for a total of nearly HUF 72 million (EUR 180,900) over 36 months and will be used by the institution’s staff for public service.

The tender was announced in August 2024, M1 being the only bidder.

According to the tender, the net bid price is close to HUF 40,000 (EUR 101) per car, with a total of nearly HUF 2 million (EUR 5,025) per month for the five cars.

Since only the summary of the evaluation of the bids was uploaded to the Electronic Public Procurement System (EPS), we have sent a public interest request to the university to find out what other services are included in the contract and what type and equipment of cars are rented.

The University of Veterinary Medicine set a thirty-day deadline for the purchase of (replacement) cars, which the Mészáros’ company met, as a total of 10 cars were delivered in response to our request for information. Based on these, five Skoda Kodiaq 2.0 TDI cars with a mileage of between 7 and 11 kilometres were delivered by the in November 2024 (these could be the replacement cars), followed by five other Skoda Kodiaq 1.9 cars, also with low mileage, between February and March 2025.

A query of the vehicle data revealed that most of the cars were manufactured in 2024 (one in 2025) and that the cars were registered for leasing with Euroleasing Financial Services Ltd, the leasing company of Lőrinc Mészáros’ bank (MBH).

We contacted the university to find out who will use these vehicles and for what purpose. The institution replied that the cars will be used by the staff of the university for the performance of their public duties.

Recently privatized university also rents from Mészáros

M1’s most recent contract is with the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences. According to a document uploaded on ekr.gov.hu, Mészáros M1 Kft. won three of the five parts of the tender:

• 3 director’s cars for HUF 837,000 (EUR 2,102) per month (total HUF 40,176,000 (EUR 100,949)),
• 3 five-person administration cars for HUF 447,000 (EUR 1,123) per month (total HUF 21,456,000 (EUR 53,915)),
• 3 seven-person administration cars for HUF 477,000 (EUR 1,198) per month (total HUF 22,896,000 (EUR 57,536)).

The University was unable to purchase the senior management vehicle and the 3 electric executive cars because the financial resources available were not sufficient to cover the lowest bid (see HUF 389,000 (EUR 978) and HUF 677,880 (EUR 1,703) per month).

This time, there was a lot of competition for the contracts, with 3-7 bids for each part, but no one was able to offer more favourable conditions than M1.

Since 2021, the agricultural university has been operating as a private university for public benefit, and the rights to maintain it are in the hands of the Foundation for the Hungarian Agricultural and Life Sciences University. Sándor Csányi, a banker, has been appointed chairman of the board of trustees of the trust, but the board was originally replaced by two Fidesz politicians, István Nagy, Minister of Agriculture, and János Lázár, Member of Parliament. They were members until 2023.