Hungarian state firm becomes majority owner in companies of Serbian businessman with ties to criminals

On July 17, 2025, MVM Zrt, Hungary’s state-owned energy company announced that it had acquired a majority stake in two subsidiaries of the Serbian Maneks Group, which are involved in the development of electrical and telecommunications systems. The Hungarian company had previously purchased minority stakes in the company, but had secured an option to purchase more at a later time. Recently, the Serbian companies have received many orders and increased their turnover and profitability, prompting Hungarian decision-makers to exercise their purchase option. The fact that the company is increasing its shares in foreign energy companies is in itself not a surprising development. It is well known that MVM would like to become a regional player, and accordingly, it has already acquired shares in the Czech and Romanian markets and has since 2022 been a minority owner in the two Serbian companies concerned in this most recent transaction. However, what sets apart the recently concluded Serbian deal from the expansion in the Czech Republic and Romania is the company in which the Hungarian state has become the majority owner through MVM.

Over the past week, the Serbian press has covered the story in detail. The articles published have highlighted that Dragoljub Zbiljić, the owner of Maneks Group, enjoys close ties with Aleksandar Vučić's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). Since the party came to power, Zbiljić has become one of Serbia's richest entrepreneurs and, according to Serbian media reports, he also has regular contacts with well-known figures in the country's organized crime circles. The Serbian press notes that this deal is expected to significantly strengthen the close relationship between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, and also signals that the primary tie between the two leaders is money.

According to Nova.rs, Dragoljub Zbiljić first showed up around Vučić's party, SNS – which was still in opposition at the time – before the 2012 Serbian elections. The party took out a big loan to finance its election campaign that year, and Zbiljić, who already boasted considerable wealth at the time, acted as a guarantor for the 55-million dinar (roughly 142 million forints at the exchange rate then) bank loan. SNS won the election, and public contracts began to flow to the businessman's companies.

According to the paper, the two companies, which have now come under the majority ownership of MVM, Energotehnika – Južna Bačka and Elektromontaža, have received huge contracts from the state over the past 13 years. Their privileged status is very well known as the state often doesn't even bother with issuing calls for tenders or public procurement notices, but simply award contracts to them without any competition. And in the rare cases when there is a tender, Zbiljić's companies regularly win, even if their bids are more expensive than those of their competitors.

Under this system, Zbiljić has been awarded contracts including:

• the construction of the National Stadium for €152 million,
• the planning and construction of a sewage treatment plant for €13 million,
• the construction of an electricity network for €17 million,
• and the building of a bus station for €57 million.

In the past year alone, Zbiljić has been awarded nearly 30 contracts by the state. His most significant client has been the state-owned Elektrodistribucija Srbije, Serbia's national electricity company, which awarded Zbiljić's companies at least one contract almost every month. The total value of the contracts signed with the state-owned company within the year exceeds €32 million.

In 2023, ForbesCroatia compiled a list of Serbian entrepreneurs who have accumulated substantial wealth since Aleksandar Vučić came to power in 2012. Dragoljub Zbiljić ranks second on this list based on the profitability of his companies. The first on the list is Zvonko Veselinović, who is active in the construction industry. The revenue and profits of Veselinović's company, Inkop, have skyrocketed over the past five years, primarily thanks to construction projects. Veselinović is also the closest associate and business partner of Milan Radoičić, who recently admitted to organizing the provocation in northern Kosovo in September 2023, which ended with 30 armed Serbian men barricading themselves in a monastery in the Kosovar town of Leposavić. In northern Kosovo, Zvonko Veselinović is known as one of the "guardians of the bridge." This means that he is one of the leading figures in the local Serbian political, business, and criminal circles.

Nova Ekonomija also examined Maneks' 2024 report, which shows that Zbiljić's company's profits have skyrocketed in recent years. In 2024, the company generated revenues of €26.6 million, almost double the €14.3 million in 2023. In 2023, the company's net profit was around €5.5 million, but by 2024, this jumped to €13 million. This represents a 137 percent increase.

Criminal connections

Dragoljub Zbiljić does not limit his activities to public procurements. He is the president of the Serbian Super League and he also serves as director of the Vojvodina Football Club. He has cultivated such good relations with the state leadership that he was even nominated for the position of CEO of Elektrodistribucija Srbije, although he ended up not getting the job. He wasn't left without a state appointed position, however, as he was added to the supervisory board of the Faculty of Organization Sciences at the University of Belgrade. He was dismissed from this position after two years though.

His departure came after krik.rs published an investigative article showing that Zbiljić had connections with and did business with well-known figures of the Serbian criminal underworld. For example, the businessman had a close relationship with Miloš Pandrc, an associate of drug lord Darko Šarić, who spent 10 and a half years in prison for international cocaine trafficking. At one point, Zbiljić was planning business deals with Pandrc and regularly informed him about the internal affairs of SNS's Novi Sad branch.

According to the source of the Serbian investigative portal, the Serbian authorities had also seen the material obtained by krik.rs. This happened a year and a half ago, when Europol made it available to the Serbian police and several other law enforcement agencies in the region for the purpose of analysis. Krik.rs has also seen a report prepared by a foreign law enforcement agency, which analyzes the messages.

According to the Serbian paper, similarly to Zbiljić, Pandrc is also involved in the energy sector and has throughout the messaging repeatedly indicated that he will also make a nice profit from Zbiljić's businesses. As mentioned the messages, Pandrc signed major contracts with Zbiljić's companies Elektromontaža and Energotehnika – Južna Bačka in 2020. He also boasted that he would receive one of Zbiljić's smaller construction companies as a "gift" from the entrepreneur. In one of his messages, Pandrc predicts that thanks to Zbiljić, he will become the dominant player in the energy industry in his hometown of Vrnjačka Banja and the surrounding region. “They won’t be able to change a light bulb without me,” Pandrc wrote in a message.

Their writing also reveals that the relationship between Zbiljić and Pandrc extended beyond their business dealings, into their private lives. At times, Pandrc also provided the businessman with lifestyle advice, such as who he should meet with and what he should say at those meetings.

Following the publication of Krik's article, students at the University of Belgrade began collecting signatures for Zbiljić's removal from the institution's council. They gathered a significant amount very quickly, prompting the Serbian government to terminate the billionaire's appointment at the university without explanation.

Without state connections, neither of these companies would be of interest to anybody

Nova.rs, spoke with Milan Ćulibrk, the editor of the news portal Radar, who argued that the sale of some of these companies is a logical continuation of the relationship that has formed between Orbán and Vučić. He believes that the Serbian people will not notice any difference now that MVM has become the majority owner of Zbiljić's two largest companies. The money will simply "move from one pocket to another," Ćulibrk said, adding that a smaller, but still significant portion of the money will remain with Zbiljić. According to Ćulibrk, the companies will continue to receive Serbian state orders, but part of the revenue from these will now end up with the Hungarian state via MVM.

Orbán and Vučić "have now additionally strengthened their close friendship with economic interests, as it is in both their interests that these companies receive even more assignments, thereby earning even more and generating even greater profits. At least as long as Vučić is in power in Serbia and Orbán is in power in Hungary," Ćulibrk told Nova.

The sale of additional Maneks Group shares further strengthens the close financial and political ties between Orbán and Vučić. Nova.rs highlights that Orbán and the circles close to him have in recent years become increasingly linked to Serbia through various business interests. István Tiborcz, the son-in-law of the Hungarian prime minister, has been expanding his real estate holdings in Serbia. As reported by Telex, in January 2024, Tiborcz's company, Diófa Alapkezelő Zrt. purchased eleven office buildings in five different business districts of Belgrade.

In addition to energy, the Hungarian government is also active in the media. "Certain Hungarian media outlets in Vojvodina receive financial support from the Hungarian government and therefore openly support and disseminate Orbán's propaganda," Nova.rs writes. The 2023 research of the Belgrade Center for Security Policy found that dozens of Hungarian-language media outlets in Serbia have received money through the Hungarian government's Bethlen Gábor Fund, including Pannon RTV, Magyar Szó, Hét Nap, Express TV, URKO radio, and Vajdaság Ma. Between 2011 and 2019, the Orbán government spent around €12 million (HUF 4.8 billion) of public funds on supporting Hungarian media in Serbia's northern region of Vojvodina. According to the research of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia, most of this money was used to finance media outlets with links to Fidesz.

In response to the news of the sale, the Serbian opposition party SRCE (Srbija Centar) wrote in a statement that "from a business perspective and in view of the market, neither of the two companies would be of interest to anyone without close ties to the SNS regime, especially not to a serious company such as MVM." In their view, the sell-off of the majority stake in the two big companies linked to the ruling party's economic circle is taking place just as "control is beginning to slip from the hands" of SNS and President Aleksandar Vučić.

Since the tragic collapse of the canopy of the recently renovated railway station in the Serbian town of Novi Sad last November, anti-government voices in Serbia have intensified, and several huge demonstrations against the Vučić government have been organized in recent months. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Belgrade on March 15 and most recently on June 28.

We sent questions to MVM Zrt. about the information published by the Serbian press. Among other things, we inquired whether they were aware of the close ties between Dragoljub Zbiljić and the Serbian ruling party, as well as whether they knew of Zbiljić's relationship with certain members of the Serbian criminal uderworld prior to acquiring the shares. In their response, they wrote that they could not share any information about an ongoing transaction other than what had been stated in their previously issued official press release. "MVM Group's international expansion plans are set out in our strategy through 2035. We are conducting our business activities in accordance with this strategy."