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Daniel Kretinsky, Czech billionaire

Contested shareholder in the newspaper Le Monde, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, 44, multiplies acquisitions in France. This is our Portrait of Today eco.

Daniel Kretinsky fifth fortune in his country is a gifted industrialist. This man deemed discreet made a fortune in the field of energy.

That's what he says about himself in a rare interview on Canal + last year. " I am by legal education. I come from an absolutely normal Czech family and my job today is really entrepreneurial. I do not live the life of a rich man in the sense of having ten cars, three drivers, parties day and night; its not my style. Of course, if you count the value of the companies I own, they are billions of euros. "

A European investor

Daniel Kretinsky now owns the main Czech electricity company and the football club Sparta Prague. He has also invested in Europe. In France, he rose to the capital of Casino, the large distributor (owner of Monoprix and Franprix). It is one of the most important owners of the French press, with the purchase of shares in Le Monde , Elle , Marianne ...

His strategy is well established. Jean-Baptiste Naudet, a journalist for Le Nouvel Observateur , investigated him. " He is someone who redeems things that nobody wants. He bought coal plants in France, but he bought things in England, Italy, Germany, which nobody wants because it is not politically correct, everyone tries to get rid of them. He redeems them and he recovers them. In the press he did a little bit the same thing. While thinking that we will always need the press, we will always need energy and it works. He earned a thousand euros a month and he has three and a half billion, he is quite talented yes! "

Why did Daniel Kretinsky invest in France in particular?

" He's a francophone, his mother was francophone, who studied law in Dijon, who spent his holidays in France," continues Jean-Baptiste Naudet. When he says he is Francophile, in love with France, it's true. After all, it started with the Lagardère group which was a salesman, who had radios in the East that he wanted to get rid of. Kretinsky said: I will buy them. Lagardère said: we also have it for sale, it started like that. This is both his personal focus and business opportunities. "

Daniel Kretinsky's investments in the highly criticized media

In particular the purchase of the assets of Matthieu Pigasse, a shareholder of the newspaper Le Monde . Kretinsky actually owns a quarter of the capital. His detractors fear for the independence of the newspaper. Last year, the French services even investigated to ensure that Daniel Kretinsky did not defend Russian interests.

He explained himself on Canal +. " I am simply convinced that the press is absolutely fundamental today to protect liberal democracy in Europe. Sincerely for me who am a francophile, who is very attached to the European values, also with a historical experience because I was born in a totalitarian system governed by the communists, under the Soviet patronage, to say that I am a Russian agent it is not not professional, it's a lie; there is no reason to say so, and it touches me personally. This element of the French reaction disappointed me. "

Disappointed but not demotivated. Daniel Kretinsky intends to continue investing and hiring. Its businesses employ more than 30,000 people worldwide.

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