Billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and his business partner Patrik Tkac have boosted their stake in Foot Locker, making them the sneaker retailers top shareholder. Their company Vesa Equity Investment increased its stake in Foot Locker sports shoe retailer to 10.3 percent. Back in May, Vesa owned a 6% stake.
The value of the share on the stock exchange is now around $400 million. Foot Locker, like other retailers, is recovering from the impact of a coronavirus pandemic.
During the March declines on world stock exchanges, the company’s shares fell below twenty dollars. Since then, however, the shares’ value has more than doubled, selling at more than $ 38 a share yesterday. According to Bloomberg, they have been in a slight deficit since the beginning of the year.
In the company Vesa Equity Investment, Křetínský holds 53 percent and Patrik Tkáč owns the remaining 47 percent. Both billionaires took advantage of the stock slump. Through Vesa Equity Investment, they made a range of investments on world stock exchanges, from US retail chains to the British companies Royal Mail and Sainsbury’s to purchase shares in the French retail group Casino.
Křetínský and Tkáč have long invested in retail, wholesale, and e-commerce companies. Vesa, for example, recently increased its stake in the French retail company Casino. Both billionaires are also co-owners of the Czech News Center publishing house, which also operates the economic website E15.cz.