Former IT tycoon Economy and Transport Minister János Kóka has parted from all his ownership in businesses, keeping only his stake in a family-owned company.
Kóka, who is believed to be the richest minister in the current government, filed his asset declaration Nov. 2, demonstrating that he resigned from all his executive positions in businesses and sold his ownership stakes. He only kept 51% ownership in family enterprise Rumed 2000 Real Estate Trade and Service Kft., but handed over the managing director’s position to former business partner Orsolya Gutai-Ruppert.
Besides some real estate and a 240-horsepower motor boat, Kóka declared to own securities, bank deposits and cash placed on current account worth a total of more than HUF 200 million. He has lent HUF 146 million to private individuals. According to his own statement, Kóka has collected more than HUF 750 million between 1998 and 2003.
Kóka made his wealth by creating and selling internet and IT service provider Elender to Nasdaq-listed Euroweb International Corp. in February. The company was merged into Euroweb’s local subsidiary, Euroweb Internet Provider Rt. in spring 2004.
Elender, a small local internet provider that started business in 1995, won a public procurement tender for the Education Ministry’s five-year Sulinet program, which involved creating an internet network for Hungarian schools and connecting them to the world wide web. Last year, the company won a HUF 770 million government contract for three years to provide internet and support services for 5,000 elementary and secondary schools.
Kóka told HVG that he sold his stake in Meditcom Medical Information Technology and Communications Services Kft. to business partner Gyula Lepp. Meditcom, which is one of the three largest companies in the local medical software market, received a HUF 187.5 million investment from Information Technology Venture Capital Management Rt. (IKT), an investment vehicle supervised by the economy ministry that Kóka now heads.
In its two years of operation, IKT has invested into four companies, including Meditcom. According to documents registered at the company court, IKT found Meditcom a promising business as it has chances to grab 10%-40% of the estimated HUF 10 billion market of medical software, fueled by the need of medical institutions to replace their equipment.
