Patrik Tkáč and Daniel Křetínský have launched J&T Capital Partners holding. The goal of the new holding company based in the Czech Republic is the administration and development of all current and future shares in the joint business projects by Tkáč and Křetínský. The holding company has already bought a 44 percent stake in EPH (Energetický a průmyslový holding), which combines the original investments in energy, and in the coming months will buy other ownership shares, which are now under Tkáč’s control. The holding will, among other things, buy a 44 percent stake in the parent company of the AC Sparta Praha football club.
“Combining our shares in the joint portfolio with Dan under one structure will, in addition to undoubtedly greater clarity, bring a significant simplification of financing the development of both existing projects and future investment opportunities,” said Tkáč. J&T Capital Partners will be a company under the sole control of Tkáč, however, the J&T Private Equity Group Limited will play a significant economic and capital role.
The holding will also acquire a 44% stake in EP Equity Investment Sárl (EPEI) in the coming months, a minority investment firm in listed companies such as Royal Mail, Foot Locker, Sainsbury’s, PostNL, and a 44 percent stake in EP Global Commerce (EPGC). ), the company covering the investment in the German trading company Metro AG, which owns Makro wholesalers in the Czech Republic. The new holding will also include a 44% stake in EC Investments (ECI), a company that combines e-commerce purchases, and a 40% stake in Czech Media Invest (CMI), which covers media investments.
Following the approval of the antitrust authorities and the sellers’ creditors, the holding will also include an indirect quarter share in the Spanish retail chains CECOSA Supermercados, SLU and CAPRABO, SAU, which operate stores in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. J&T Capital Partners, or its subsidiary J&T Energy Holding, will also assume all liabilities from issued bonds and bills of exchange, which were covered under the company J&T Energy Financing Limited. Their holders will thus continue to finance a 44% stake in EPH, which was bought by Tkáč’s structure from Křetínský in December last year.
Tkáč, a native of Bratislava, is one of the richest people in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Last year, his assets were estimated by Forbes magazine at 600 million euros (over 15.5 billion crowns). In recent years, Tkáč has moved mainly in the structures around the J&T investment group, which it co-founded more than two decades ago. His father Jozef helped him on his way to the upper floors of business.
According to last year’s ranking of Forbes magazine, Křetínský is one of the richest Czechs with assets worth 78 billion crowns. The structure of his shares in companies does not change. For example, in EPH, the majority stake still belongs to him and the group of managers who hold 56 percent and one share in the holding. Křetínský himself, who exercises managerial control over the holding, indirectly owns 50 percent of the company’s shares and one share.