It was established by King Henry VIII to send messages to members of the royal court, and now, for the first time in its 508-year history, Britain’s Royal Mail is on track to have a foreign owner.
Over the past decade, as energy companies began unloading dirty assets to cut down on carbon emissions, his company, Energetický a průmyslový holding, or EPH, went on a buying spree. EPH has accumulated US$17-billion worth of assets and now owns one of Europe’s largest collections of coal-fired power plants, as well as a pipeline that brings Russian gas to Western Europe.
He has since gone on to acquire interests in companies as varied as West Ham United soccer team, British grocery store chain Sainsbury’s and French grocer Casino. By contrast, IDS’s international parcel delivery arm, General Logistic Systems, or GLS, has fared much better, and there has been speculation that Mr. Křetínský might merge it with a Dutch parcel service, PostNL, that he partially owns. GLS delivers packages across Europe and North America and reported an operating profit of £320-million last year.