Last year, the year-on-year operating profit EBITDA fell by five percent to 1.53 billion euros (39.7 billion crowns) for the company EP Infrastructure (EPIF), which is one of the main components of the Energy and Industrial Holding (EPH) entrepreneur Daniel Křetínský. Consolidated sales decreased by 8.1 percent to 3.2 billion euros (83.1 billion crowns).
EPIF comprises EPH companies engaged in the transmission, distribution, and storage of natural gas, electricity distribution, and heat production. The 31 percent stake in EPIF belongs to the fund of the Australian bank Macquarie. The rest belongs to EPH. EP Infrastructuresama describes last year’s results as gratifying.
“This is because operating performance is primarily due to long-term contracts and payments from regulated activities, which together account for the majority of the group’s revenues. After achieving exceptional results in 2019 in 2020, “the company wrote in today’s announcement.
EPIF recalled that in the last quarter of 2020, it sold two entities in the district heating segment, namely Pražská teplárenská, which is the primary heat distributor in Prague, and Budapesti Erömü, a key heat producer in Budapest. “Together, these entities accounted for approximately five percent of the EPIF Group’s adjusted EBITDA,” she added.
The group continues to include, for example, shares in the Slovak gas carrier Eustream and in Nafta, which operates gas storage facilities in Slovakia. It also owns a brown coal power plant in Opatovice nad Labem in the Pardubice region and United Energy, which is the operator of a heating plant in Komořany, which produces heat and electricity for the cities of Most and Litvínov.
Last December, the Slovak financier and one of the founders of the J&T group, Patrik Tkáč, returned to the shareholder structure of EPH. It currently owns 44 percent minus one share of the holding. The majority share still belongs to Křetínský and a group of managers who hold 56 percent and one share in EPH. Křetínský, who exercises managerial control over the holding, indirectly owns 50 percent of its shares.
EPH was founded in 2009. The companies that are part of the EPH group employ around 25,000 people. The holding includes over 70 companies throughout Europe, covering the entire energy chain from lignite mining through electricity and heat production to electricity and heat distribution. According to last year’s Forbes magazine ranking, Křetínský is one of the wealthiest Czechs with assets worth 78 billion crowns.