Billionaire Kretinsky Sets Sights Beyond Europe With Total Deal
(Bloomberg) -- Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky moved to diversify his exposure beyond Europe as one of the continent’s most prominent dealmakers secured a stake in global oil major TotalEnergies SE, raising questions about what he might do next.
Kretinsky agreed that his energy holding company Energeticky a Prumyslovy Holding AS, or EPH, will contribute a 50% stake in a new joint venture with Total. In exchange, EPH will get a 4.1% stake in Total, worth about €5.1 billion ($5.9 billion). The Czech holding company is also set to get dividends of more than €320 million a year, according to a Bloomberg calculation based on the latest quarterly payout.
The 50-year-old — whose net worth is $10.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — has built a conglomerate of dozens of companies operating across Europe and in industries ranging from electricity generation to natural gas transmission and storage.
As he built his empire, the third-richest Czech hasn’t shied away from investing in businesses that were politically sensitive or financially distressed, but has found a more mature vehicle now in France-based Total.
Like its new owner, the company is seeking diversification as it pursues a target of 20% of energy sales from electricity by 2030. Kretinsky, a self-proclaimed Francophile, said that becoming one of Total’s largest investors is a key move and he’s keen for EPH to hold the shares for the long term.
“We are implementing our strategy ambition to diversify and reduce our geographic exposure, which is currently concentrated in the EU and UK,” Kretinsky, EPH’s chairman and controlling shareholder, said in a statement.
A lawyer by training, he got his start in business in 1999 at private investment firm J&T. Within a decade, he formed EPH — where he initially held a minority stake — with the backing of partners from J&T and the late Czech billionaire Petr Kellner.
Kellner sold his shares back to EPH in 2014, and subsequent changes led to Kretinsky obtaining a controlling stake. After Kellner died in a helicopter crash in 2021, Kretinsky became a member of a small group advising his heirs, who have the richest family office in eastern Europe.
Kretinsky’s wealth stemmed from a bet more than a decade ago that it would take Europe longer to wean itself off fossil fuels than its green strategy envisaged. He took advantage by using EPH as a vehicle to scoop up assets that publicly traded utilities were forced to offload as banks curbed financing due to pressure to fulfill environmental, social and governance standards.
More recently, he’s branched out well beyond energy, including last year’s £3.6 billion ($4.7 billion) takeover of Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distribution Services Plc. That deal was carried out by EP Group, which he also operates alongside VESA Equity Investment.
He controls a share in the British supermarket group J Sainsbury Plc, French media assets and is in the process of taking German wholesaler Metro AG private. He’s also an avid soccer investor, including stakes in AC Sparta Prague and London club West Ham United.
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