West Ham co-owner Daniel Kretinsky looks set to seal a major £787m new French deal and it’s causing controversy across The Channel.
As speculative claims and counter claims continue to be made about ‘secretive’ Kretinsky’s long-term intentions at West Ham, the Czech billionaire continues to spend big on investments away from the club.
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 Hammers takeover (The Evening Standard). And there has been speculation for years that Sullivan and the Gold family would sell their stakes in West Ham 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.
Earlier this month Kretinsky landed a £1bn 15-year mega deal to provide back-up energy supply to the National Grid in the UK.
Then Kretinsky moved to spend big on two French deals for technology consultancy Atos and retailer Fnac Darty as part of his growing portfolio of investments.
Now West Ham co-owner Kretinsky set to seal a major new £787m French deal and it’s causing controversy.
French media giant Vivendi has revealed it is in exclusive talks to sell publisher Editis to Kretinsky’s company in a deal that could help win regulatory approval for its takeover of Lagardere.
Vivendi said it was in talks about the the sale of Editis with International Media Invest (IMI), a subsidiary of Czech Media Invest founded by Kretinsky.
Vivendi said its decision to embark on the talks meant it was dropping an earlier plan to spin off Editis and float it on the Paris stock market.
Laverne said a sale of Editis to West Ham’s co-owner could be worth as much as £787m and at least £525m.
West Ham’s second biggest stakeholder already has stakes in French news outlet Le Monde and TV group TF1.
But Reuters reports that the prospect of merging Editis with France’s largest publisher has triggered criticism from independent publishers and resulted in Editis losing some well-known authors.
“I am very happy and proud of the possibility of becoming a shareholder of a publishing flagship like Editis if the process comes through,” Kretinsky said in a statement, as quoted by Reuters.
“I am aware of the responsibilities that such an acquisition entails in view of the quality of the houses that comprise the group and their place in French intellectual history.”
It is the latest in a series of big money moves the West Ham man is making across The Channel.
Hammers News reported back in October last year that Kretinsky had launched a series of big money French media moves after also buying a £37m castle near Paris.
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