Daniel Kretinsky is at it again.
(Bloomberg) — Daniel Kretinsky is at it again.
The Czech billionaire is turning into a serial buyer of French assets, mostly firms that are flailing and badly in need of a savior. The moves are helping him climb to the top echelons of the country’s business establishment.
In the latest such attempt, the 48-year-old self-proclaimed Francophile is offering to take over the legacy assets of Atos SE, the technology company said on Tuesday. Atos will get €100 million ($110 million) in cash and transfer €1.9 billion in debt to the buyer, it said.
Just in the last few months, Kretinsky, who built his fortune on energy assets, has jumped into three high-profile French deals involving embattled companies in sectors as varied as supermarkets, IT outsourcing and book publishing. For the investor — who studied and speaks French — the buying spree is just a way to balance out his European holdings. Kretinsky’s Vesa Equity Investment owns stakes in J Sainsbury Plc and Royal Mail, among other assets.
“I note that my group is bigger in Germany and the UK than in France,” Kretinsky said last month in an interview with Les Echos, seeking to explain his interest in supermarket chain Casino. “Becoming the controlling shareholder of Casino, a major actor, with my friend Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, would help to re-balance that.”
In September, Kretinsky bought a French castle — Chateau du Marais — for €43 million. He purchased a Paris townhouse from Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev and his ex-wife in 2020 that borders the Elysee Palace, the residence of the French president.
Below are some of Kretinsky’s high-profile acquisition interests in France in the last few months:
Atos
The billionaire is set to take control of the ailing legacy IT outsourcing business of Atos, operations that have struggled to adapt to the cloud era. A series of setbacks and profit warnings has sent Atos’s market value plunging to about €1.1 billion at Monday’s close from €8.2 billion at the end of 2020.
Atos decided on a split last year, separating out its legacy business. In addition to taking over the older operations, Kretinsky’s EP Equity Investment will invest a total of €217.5 million in Atos’s costly restructuring. As part of that deal, he is set to get a 7.5% stake in Eviden, the new unit to be listed later this year in Paris, that will include its cybersecurity, cloud and supercomputing businesses.
The deal now under negotiation is expected to be completed by the first quarter of next year, it said.
Casino
Kretinsky has been in the spotlight for stepping into the Casino Guichard Perrachon SA saga. He reached an agreement last week to recapitalize the business and cut debt in the troubled supermarket operator, with help of partner Fimalac and creditor Attestor Capital. Casino has been hamstrung for years by stagnant sales in the highly competitive French grocery market – the company reported an underlying net loss of €1.3 billion in the first half of this year.
Kretinsky will provide the majority of a €1.2 billion equity injection to bolster the company’s liquidity. More than €1.3 billion of secured debt and €3.5 billion of unsecured debt will be converted into equity.
Editis
In June, a subsidiary of Kretinsky’s CMI group signed an agreement with Vincent Bollore-controlled Vivendi SE for the purchase of book publisher Editis, for a price set between €500 and €600 million, according to press reports. The sale of the No. 2 book seller in France is among steps Vivendi needed to undertake for approval of its acquisition of Lagardere SA.
Fnac Darty
In March, Kretinsky’s Vesa Equity Investment raised its holding in French retailer Fnac Darty to 25%.
Le Monde, Others
Kretinsky has been keen on buying media assets in France, with a recent stake acquired in online media Loopsider.
In December 2022, he took a 47% stake in podcast studio Louie Media.
The billionaire is a minority shareholder of newspaper Le Monde and TV channel TF1, and owns various magazines including Elle. He has thus become one of the rare non-French billionaires to join a club of the country’s media owners, including Bernard Arnault, Patrick Drahi and Xavier Niel.
–With assistance from Phil Serafino.
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