Daniel Kretinsky in France, a protean galaxy of purchases and investments | EUROtoday

When he appeared in Paris, in April 2018, to purchase Lagardère’s French magazines – together with She – and the weekly Mariannevirtually nobody has heard of Daniel Kretinsky. The Czech will be the fifth richest man in his nation, however his successes in actual property in Prague and in vitality in Central Europe haven’t crossed borders. Nearly eight years later, even earlier than he revealed his deliberate takeover bid for Fnac Darty on January 26, few individuals have no idea his identify.

At 50, the lawyer has develop into a key businessman in France, step by step weaving his net by way of acquisitions, first within the media (She, Marianne, the creation of the journal Franc-Stireur and the tv channel T18), to start its affect, then in vitality (GazelEnergie, about to be taken over by TotalEnergies), distribution (Casino, Monoprix, Fnac Darty) and publishing (Editis). Sectors the place the Czech had already invested in his nation. The cumulative turnover of French belongings majority-owned by the Czech billionaire is round 20 billion euros. They make use of practically 45,000 individuals.

Added to this are two monetary holdings: one in TF1, for five.1% of voting rights; the opposite in Quadient (previously Neopost), a postal providers firm (22%). In the media, if he’s not the proprietor, the businessman additionally funds the each day newspaper Release. At the start of January, he granted it a brand new mortgage, the fourth in 4 years, for an quantity of round 15 million euros, bringing its whole monetary assist to 59 million euros. The newspaper must begin repaying it in 2027, a 12 months later than initially deliberate. Indirect shareholder time Worldthe Czech billionaire offered his shares to Xavier Niel in September 2023.

Sympathy for Emmanuel Macron

Daniel Kretinsky was capable of afford this hexagonal galaxy because of the numerous income generated by his coal-fired energy vegetation in Central Europe, bought at low costs within the early 2010s, when German vitality firms had been trying to get out of this occupation, which is frowned upon as a result of it generates an excessive amount of greenhouse gasoline. It additionally advantages enormously from the 49% stake within the capital of the Slovak Eustream gasoline pipeline, bought initially of 2013 from the French GDF and the German E.ON. This transports Russian gasoline to Western Europe.

You have 59.53% of this text left to learn. The relaxation is reserved for subscribers.