The ‘Czech sphinx’ prowling France for deals
In the country home to Bernard Arnault and Françoise Bettencourt Meyers — ranked by Forbes as the world’s richest man and woman, respectively — another power player is coming to the fore in corporate France: Daniel Křetínský.
Hailing from the Czech Republic, the 47-year-old Francophile has become a central player in France’s highest-profile active deals, gradually shedding his outsider status to become one of Europe’s most prolific dealmakers.
His current docket includes a €1bn bid to wrest control of French supermarket Casino from its owner, talks to buy publisher Editis from billionaire Vincent Bolloré’s Vivendi, and perhaps even an acquisition of the IT services business Atos in a spin-off deal.
“Every time there is a big bid in France, whether it is Editis or Casino, he’s there,” said one French investor. “He bought his way into the establishment and it’s working.”
Dubbed the “Czech Sphinx” for his affinity for privacy and poker-faced investment strategy, Křetínský’s interest in France has attracted similar curiosity.
The energy tycoon first built his empire by snapping up unloved, often carbon-intensive energy businesses on the cheap, often using external financing. That bet paid off in spades when the energy crisis electrified profits in the sector, doubling his fortune to more than $10bn over the past year.
He now wants to diversify those gains “to create an enterprise equivalent to his energy interests”, according to one of his advisers.
Křetínský’s portfolio includes stakes in the UK’s Royal Mail, grocer J Sainsbury, and West Ham football club as well as German wholesaler Metro and US sneaker chain Foot Locker.
While the aggressive shift into retail, sport and media establishments across the UK and Europe is a way to hedge against his core energy assets, it’s still in line with his signature move: finding cheap assets in structurally challenged sectors and benefiting from any uptick.
His latest dealmaking endeavours are also powerful indicators of his growing influence in French business, where his advances haven’t always been welcome.
In 2018, Křetínský scooped up a series of titles from French media group Lagardère before unexpectedly buying a stake in the group behind newspaper Le Monde, sparking opposition from journalists and shareholders.
As Casino gears up for a complex and expensive debt restructuring, a potential leading role in restructuring the French supermarket could be one of Křetínský’s biggest power moves yet.