http://www.portfolio.hu/en/cikkek.tdp?k=2&i=19374

Chiefs of Hungary's OTP, MOL among 50 emerging market business leaders - Financial Times

The Financial Times listed Sándor Csányi, Chairman-CEO of Hungary’s OTP Bank and Zsolt Hernádi, Chairman-CEO of Hungarian oil and gas group MOL, among the 50 emerging market business leaders "who have shaped the economic performance of their respective regions."

"As head of Hungary’s biggest bank and one of the largest independent providers of financial services in Central and Eastern Europe, Sándor Csányi is a shoo-in for the title of the country’s most powerful businessmen," the FT described the OTP chief.

"Csányi, an economist and certified auditor, became Chairman and CEO of OTP in 1992 and has overseen the privatisation, modernisation and expansion of the formerly state-owned institution."

With eight subsidiaries outside Hungary, OTP has acquired and developed a network serving almost 11.8 million customers across the region. Csányi is also Vice Chairman of MOL.

"Zsolt Hernádi, 49, became Chairman of MOL in 2000 and added the title of chief executive the following year. Since then, the former state-savings executive has managed MOL’s transformation from a national energy champion to a regional conglomerate as well as adding operations as far afield as Pakistan. MOL’s privatisation allowed suitors to come knocking at the door, however, and, Hernádi has spent considerable energies fighting them off," the FT said.

"OMV of Austria abandoned a two-year attempt to acquire MOL last year, only to sell its 21% stake to Surgutneftegaz, a Russian oil company, triggering a furious reaction among Hungarian politicians and MOL executives. Hernádi angrily accused OMF of being a "front" for the Kremlin (an accusation denied by the company) and he ahs since repeatedly refused to co-operate with Surgut. MOL and OMV remain partners in the Nabucco gas pipeline, however."