West Ham co-owner Daniel Kretinsky has landed a £1bn 15-year mega deal for energy supply in the UK.
Czech billionaire Kretinsky became West Ham’s second biggest stakeholder behind David Sullivan when he purchased 27 per cent of the club in November 2021.
Kretinsky has repeatedly been linked with an eventual full takeover of West Ham (The Evening Standard). And there has been speculation for years that Sullivan and the Gold family would sell their stakes in the Hammers in 2023.
The businessman has stakes in a host of big businesses such as Royal Mail and Sainsbury’s. But the bulk of his estimated £4bn plus wealth is built on his involvement in energy.
Now Kretínsky has been chosen by National Grid to provide backup power to the UK for the next 15 years in a deal worth over £1bn.
The West Ham co-owner’s deal will see his company EPH build a new battery storage plant and a gas-fired generator in Yorkshire at the site of the former Eggborough coal-powered power station.
EPH acquired the site in 2015 as part of its acquisition of Eggborough, which was decommissioned in 2018.
West Ham co-owner Daniel Kretinsky lands £1bn 15-year mega deal with UK energy supply
The project would be “a major contribution to the provision of indigenous generation and energy security [in the UK] through the 2020s and into the 2030s,” EPH added.
Contracts indicated a provisional clearing price for power generated, subject to Secretary of State approval, of 63£/kW.
Jan Springl, a member of the EPH Board of Directors, is quoted by Proactive Investors as saying: “We are happy that with the investment of more than £1bn we can construct one of the most modern power plant in Europe and materially contribute to the security of supply in the UK.“
It comes just weeks after The Telegraph reported that Kretínsky had held talks with Greg Hands, the former trade minister and now Conservative party chairman, to discuss his investment plans in the UK.
Whether full ownership of West Ham was discussed in that particular meeting we don’t know.
Although respected football finance expert Kieran Maguire exclusively told Hammers News last month that he has heard full ownership of West Ham simply is not on the agenda for Kretinsky.
And Maguire also revealed Sullivan has no intentions of selling up at the moment.
“There’s no enthusiasm from his (Kretinsky) camp for a full takeover from what I hear,” Maguire told Hammers News.
“West Ham also have David Sullivan wanting to keep it in the family, especially having had his loans repaid.”
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