Czech billionaire fails to win enough backing for Metro takeover
Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky has failed in his high-profile effort to buy Metro AG, after shareholders in the German food group declined to take up his €5.8bn offer.
EP Global Commerce, the investment vehicle of Mr Kretinsky and his Slovak business partner Patrik Tkac, confirmed on Friday evening that at the end of the tender period it owned or had been tendered only 41.7 per cent of Metro’s shares, well short of the minimum acceptance threshold of 67.5 per cent.
EP Global Commerce’s move for Metro, announced in June, was the latest episode in a buying spree that has turned Mr Kretinsky, dubbed the “Czech Sphinx” for his inscrutability, into one of Europe’s most prominent dealmakers.
Having made built his fortune with a string of deals in the European energy sector, Mr Kretinsky has more recently bid for various retail and media assets, including France’s most famous newspaper, Le Monde.
EP Global Commerce, which already owned 17.5 per cent of Metro, offered €16 for each Metro share it did not already own, and €13.80 for each preference share.
However, the German food group’s management, led by long-serving chief executive Olaf Koch, advised shareholders not to accept the deal, arguing that it undervalued the company and would burden it with too much debt.