Czech billionaire expands empire with Slovakia energy move
Daniel Křetínský, the second richest Czech, who recently finalised the purchase of the British Royal Mail, announced on Thursday the acquisition of a majority stake in Slovenské Elektrárne, the largest energy producer in Slovakia. The billionaire also owns football clubs and the newspaper "Le Monde".
The Brno-born billionaire also owns the Casino shop chain, significant shares in the German steel conglomerate ThyssenKrupp, and a gas transmission network in Slovakia, including the one supplying from Russia. Analysts emphasise that the holding company EPH, owned by Křetínský, conducts the largest business operations outside the borders of the Czech Republic. This assessment was influenced by the acquisition of Royal Mail, for which the British government had to give consent.
Křetínský, who is a lawyer, entered big business at the beginning of the 2000s. He joined the financial group J&T, which still exists today and was making acquisitions, among others, in Central Europe. In 2003, he became a partner of this group and began investing his profits in the energy sector.
Commentators note that although Křetínský has good relations with politicians of various orientations and even employs one of the former right-wing premiers, he does not flaunt these connections.
Among Czech dollar billionaires, Křetínský competes for the top spot in rankings with Renáta Kellnerová, who, along with her family, owns the PPF group. The widow of businessman Petr Kellner, who tragically died in a skiing accident in Alaska, continues his investments in banking, media, and telecommunications.
The group started in the 1990s, taking advantage of the opportunity created by voucher privatisation. Czechs and Slovaks received vouchers with which they could buy shares in state-owned companies or sell them to various emerging investment funds. One of these was PPF, which amassed shares in 200 companies.
Kellner used his experience in the Czech Republic for a similar operation in Russia. He then invested in the Home Credit company, which is still operating in many countries today, providing individual loans. Then came big business, involving buying and then selling the largest Czech insurance company.
In this transaction, Kellner was already sitting at the big table, along with ministers, the prime minister, and the head of the central bank. In 2002, PPF invested in the Czech private television station TV NOVA.
Similar investments later followed in other Central European countries. Among the Kellner empire is Markíza - the largest television station in Slovakia. When its management, succumbing to political pressure, made changes among the moderators of the most popular debates in the spring, employees of Markíza, as well as opposition politicians, turned to Renáta Kellnerová for support, only to hear that the owner did not intend to interfere in the current policies of the television management.
