Majority owner Bachar Najari, a Syrian-born businessman who acquired a 74.5% majority stake in the company from now minority owner Pécs local council in 2013, said in the statement that the move by the Hungarian government this February to declare the company of “strategic importance” was made in order to facilitate the takeover, MTI reported. Such companies receive special treatment in a bankruptcy procedure, however, the majority owner said the company pays its bills and local taxes on time.
In response to the majority owner’s statement, the local council of Pécs, indirect minority stakeholder of 19% of the company, said the majority owner was averse to its wish to look into the companyʼs books, MTI reported, adding that the local council did not say whether it wanted to part with its stake in the company.
Citing public records, the news agency said Zsolnay had a loss of HUF 28 million on revenue of HUF 711 mln in 2014.



