Factbox: Czech billionaire Kretinsky's sprawling empire
18/07/2024 09:23
(Adds Unieuro, updates Quadient and Atos)
July 18 (Reuters) - Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky
sought to continue his buying spree this week with a joint offer
to buy Italy's Unieuro UNIR.MI .
Kretinsky, 49, a former investment bank lawyer who built one
of Europe's largest energy groups, Energeticky a Prumyslovy
Holding (EPH), has been diversifying into retail, media and
other areas.
His net worth stands at $9.4 billion, according to Forbes.
Kretinsky operates through various investment vehicles,
including EP Group and VESA Equity Investment. The latter has a
portfolio valued at more than 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion),
according to its website.
Here is a summary of some investments by firms controlled by
Kretinsky and his long-term business partner, Patrik Tkac:
EPH
Kretinsky holds slightly over 50% in EPH through its parent
EPCG, which owns scores of energy companies across western and
central Europe.
The energy business of EPCG reported a combined core profit
(EBITDA) of 7.3 billion euros for 2023.
RETAIL
* Unieuro UNIR.MI
French retailer Fnac Darty and Ruby Equity Investment, both
linked to Kretinsky via VESA, offered on July 16 to buy the
Italian retailer of consumer electronics and household
appliances for around 249 million euros ($272.08 million).
* Casino CASP.PA
Kretinsky's Casino buyout consortium said in February that
the Paris Commerce court had approved its plan to bail out the
debt-laden French retailer under an accelerated protection
procedure.
Following the deal, the consortium owned 53.73% of Casino
shares as of May 6, LSEG data shows.
* Fnac Darty FNAC.PA
VESA is the largest shareholder of the French retailer,
according to data from French markets regulator AMF. VESA owns
29% of Fnac Darty's voting rights, the investment vehicle's
website said.
* Foot Locker FL.N
VESA owns 12.3% voting rights in the U.S. sportswear and
footwear retailer.
* Metro B4B.DE
Kretinsky is the controlling shareholder of Metro with
49.99% of the German retail group's voting rights, German weekly
"Lebensmittelzeitung" reported in March.
* Sainsbury's SBRY.L
VESA has a 9.99% stake in the British supermarket group,
LSEG data showed.
POSTAL SERVICES
* International Distributions Services IDSI.L
The owner of Britain's Royal Mail said on May 29 it had
agreed to a 3.57 billion pound ($4.64 billion) takeover by
Kretinsky to take the group private.
* PostNL PTNL.AS
Kretinsky had accumulated a 31.4% stake in the Dutch mail
and package delivery group through VESA, a regulatory filing
showed in November 2022.
* Quadient QDT.PA
Kretinsky invested 1 billion Czech crowns ($43.25 million)
in November to buy a stake in the French mailroom equipment
company. VESA owned 15% of the voting rights as of June, the
French markets regulator AMF said.
MEDIA
* Editis
France's Vivendi VIV.PA agreed in June 2023 to sell its
publishing business Editis to International Media Invest, a unit
of Kretinsky's Czech Media Invest (CMI). Vivendi said in
November it had received 653 million euros ($713.53 million)
after finalising the sale.
* Elle, Marianne
Kretinsky also owns several French titles via CMI, such as
Elle and news magazine Marianne, according to the CMI website.
* TF1
VESA holds 5% in French TV company TF1, LSEG data showed.
OTHER
* Thyssenkrupp TKAG.DE
The German industrial conglomerate said on May 23 that its
supervisory board had approved a planned sale of 20% of its
steel division to Kretinsky despite continued opposition from
labour representatives.
Thyssenkrupp said in April the parties were also in talks
about the acquisition of a further 30% stake, aiming for a 50-50
joint venture.
* Atos ATOS.PA
The EPEI group consortium led by Kretinsky sent Atos a
letter informing it of its interest in rejoining the talks on
restructuring the French technology group's debt, after a
consortium led by investor David Layani's Onepoint withdrew from
the discussions in June.
In February, talks between Atos and Kretinsky over the sale
of its legacy operations collapsed.
* DoDo
Logistics firm DoDo, which provides fast delivery services
to customers in e-commerce, retail and food delivery, said in
May 2022 that Kretinsky would inject 60 million euros ($65.56
million) into the group over two years to support its
international expansion.
* West Ham
Kretinsky's 1890s Holdings group has a 27% stake in the
English Premier League soccer club, according to the club's
website, in addition to his ownership of the leading Czech team,
Sparta Prague.
($1 = 0.9152 euros)
($1 = 0.7692 pounds)
($1 = 23.1210 Czech crowns)
(Compiled by Laura Lenkiewicz, Diana Mandiá, Jan Lopatka, Jason
Hovet and Alessandro Parodi; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Jan
Harvey, Sharon Singleton, Stephen Coates, Ana Nicolaci da Costa
and Milla Nissi)
((diana.mandiaalvarez@thomsonreuters.com))