Mister K, who he is and where the new Caprabo shareholder invests

The cooperative group Eroski has announced the sale of 50% of Caprabo to the Czech investment holding EP Corporate Group. This is an operation that pursues a dual objective: to reduce the heavy debt of the Basque company and to give a new impetus to the Barcelona supermarket chain, which now incorporates into its capital a financial partner with strong experience in the distribution sector and who will help it complete its transformation plan and begin a new phase of growth.

Headquartered in Prague, EP Corporate is an investment group led by Daniel Křetínský, owner of Central Europe's main energy company: Energetický a průmyslový holding (EPH), a giant with assets of 16,000 million euros and operating in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Italy, Ireland, United Kingdom, France and Switzerland. Křetínský is also the main shareholder of the powerful German distribution group Metro, which in Spain we know as the owner of Makro. This cash & carry chain, then, will now be related to Caprabo, as they will have a common reference shareholder.

Křetínský is considered the third richest man in the Czech Republic, with an estimated fortune, according to Forbes ranking, of 4,000 million dollars, which places him in position 565 of the world ranking of billionaires. The businessman, who is part of the so-called second generation of Czech oligarchs, is also president and co-owner (40%) of the centenary football team AC Sparta Prague, one of the most important in the country.

Born in 1975 in Brno, the second main Czech city, Křetínský graduated in Law and Political Science from Masaryk University, where his father was a computer science professor. His mother is also a lawyer and a judge of the country's Constitutional Court. And how did Caprabo's new financial partner become one of Eastern Europe's main fortunes? The young businessman began his professional career as a lawyer for the Slovak investment group J&T, where he rose through the ranks, becoming a partner in the firm in 2003. When J&T founded the electricity company EPH, Křetínský was appointed president and, from there, began a successful and ambitious career as an executive that led him over the years to become the main owner of the electricity company thanks to multiple corporate operations and financial engineering.

According to EPH's website, Křetínský currently owns 50% plus one share of the energy giant, while his Slovak partner in multiple businesses, Patrik Tkáč, owns 44% and the management team the remaining 6%. The businessman leads an electricity production group that has grown through acquisitions and has diversified into the logistics and real estate sectors. With revenues of 8.6 billion euros in 2019, EPH is a verticalized group that integrates 70 companies with 25,000 employees spread across eight countries and that, in addition to power plants and distribution networks, owns mines and gas companies. It is the main electricity company in the Czech Republic and the second largest distributor in Slovakia. One of the major corporate operations led by the businessman was the purchase, in 2013, of Eustream, a pipeline in Slovakia that acts as a bridge between Russia and the European Union.

The billionaire is also a minority shareholder of EP Industries, one of the largest industrial conglomerates in his country, with interests in the engineering, automotive, transport, and waste management sectors.

A lover of France

Until a couple of years ago, Křetínský was not well known outside his country of origin. He rose to fame, however, in 2018, when it emerged that he had bought a minority stake in the newspaper Le Monde, which set off all alarms in France. This operation was very controversial, as it generated suspicion in the newsroom of the prestigious newspaper, which saw its independence threatened and asked for guarantees to avoid interference in the editorial line.

Křetínský already had experience in the world of the press: together with Patrik Tkáč, he is also the controlling shareholder of one of the main publishing groups in the Czech Republic, Czech News Center, publisher of Blesk, the most widely read tabloid in the country.

France has become one of Křetínský's preferred countries for investment; in addition to Le Monde, he has acquired capital in the magazines Marianne and Elle, and has also bought 5.6% of the Casino group, one of the largest distribution companies in the world, with more than 11,000 supermarkets in France and Latin America and a turnover of 35,000 million euros.

This strong interest in France has led him to monopolize many headlines in the country's press and has also made him the protagonist of a book published exactly one year ago, Mister K, Petites et grandes affaires de Daniel Kretinsky, written by Libération journalist Jérôme Lefilliâtre, who wanted to immerse himself in the life "of a discreet and mysterious man, who shows himself little, speaks little, but acts very quickly," as he explained in an interview with Euro Creative. In the book, where he gives him the nickname Mister K, he explains that the businessman forged ties with France when he was a child ---he had spent some summers in the country and learned the language--- and also narrates that he extensively investigated his connection with Putin's Russia. "I have not found any connivance with the Kremlin leader. I give the details in the book. Daniel Křetínský does very good business with Gazprom, but that does not make him a man of Putin," the journalist states in the same interview. According to Lefilliâtre, in recent years the energy group chaired by the businessman has invested, against the current of the rest of the sector, in mines and coal-fired power plants, which are highly polluting.

A career of investments in the midst of the pandemic

Returning to the distribution sector, Křetínský entered the capital of Groupe Casino through Vesa Equity Investment, an investment vehicle ---of which he owns 53% of the capital--- where he also has Patrik Tkáč as a partner (47%) and which last September announced the purchase of 3% of the British supermarket chain Sainsbury's, the second most important in the United Kingdom. A few months earlier, in the midst of the pandemic, Vesa had entered the capital of the American distribution chain Macy's (5%) ---although this stake has already been sold--- and in the shareholding of Royal Mail (5.35%), the iconic British postal company, with more than 500 years of history. In 2020, Vesa also bought 6% of the Foot Locker chain.

Parallel to all the investments made through Vesa, the great jewel in the crown of Křetínský and Tkáč in the distribution sector is the holding company EP Global Commerce, a reference shareholder of the giant Metro. Until a few months ago, EP Global Commerce held 29.99% of the shares of the German listed group, which operates in 34 countries and has a turnover of more than 25,000 million euros. At the end of 2020, Křetínský launched a public takeover bid (OPA) that has allowed him to increase his control over Metro to 40.6%, where he is, by far, the main shareholder. 50% of Caprabo will now depend on EP Global Commerce, whose CEO is Marco Arcelli.

Křetínsky and his partner also own 40% of Mall Group, the largest e-commerce group in Eastern Europe. In the media sector, they have recently been in the news for their divestment in the German media group ProSiebenSat.1, which they entered in 2019 and have now partially exited with copious capital gains.

Now, Mister K sets foot in Spain through Caprabo, but it will surely not be his last operation in the country.