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Daniel Křetínský is set to become the new owner of Royal Mail after the sale of its parent firm was approved by the government.
The Czech entrepreneur has been described as a “quiet sphinx” for his inscrutable style. So who is the low-key billionaire and what could new ownership mean for this historic British company?
According to the Sunday Times Rich List, the 49-year-old is now worth £6bn – up £2bn on 2023.
He has adopted a low-profile approach to his business dealings, but what we do know about Mr Křetínský is that he made a large part of his money in Central and Eastern European energy via a labyrinthine structure of companies.
This includes Eustream, which transports Russian gas via pipelines that run through Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
In the UK, Mr Křetínský has built up quite a portfolio in well-known brands through Vesa Equity Investment, a private firm which is registered in Luxembourg.
He holds big stakes in supermarket group Sainsbury’s and the sportswear retailer Footlocker.
And, like others in his wealth bracket, he has a football club or two. These include Sparta Prague in his home country, as well as Premier League club West Ham United, in which he holds a 27% stake.
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Mr Křetínský is a co-owner of West Ham United
Lawyer turned entrepreneur
The businessman and lawyer was born in the city of Brno in the Czech Republic, some three hours away from Prague.
His parents came from professional backgrounds, with his mother working as a top judge and his father a computer science academic.
He studied both law and political science, taking up a job as a trainee lawyer in Brno soon after graduating.
Afterwards he started working for the J&T investment group in 1999, climbing the ranks quickly and becoming a partner in 2003.
Since then, he has built an expansive portfolio, including investments across the energy, property and retail industries.
Mr Křetínský owns expansive properties in upmarket areas, which include Heath Hall on London’s The Bishops Avenue – known as “Billionaires’ Row”.
He reportedly bought it for £65m and once rented the property to popstar Justin Bieber for about £25,000 a week.
He also spent about €21.5m (£18.3m) buying a Parisian townhouse down the road from the Elysée Palace from Russian oligarch and fertiliser magnate Dmitry Rybolovlev and his ex-wife.
Mr Křetínský also owns a share of the Velaa private island resort in the Maldives.
Royal Mail hopes
On Monday, Mr Křetínský’s EP Group said it had a “mission to make Royal Mail a successful modern postal operator with high quality service and products for its customers”.
The conditions agreed by EP Group include keeping the brand name and Royal Mail’s headquarters and tax residency in the UK for the next five years.
It has also reached an agreement in principle with unions that include workers getting a 10% share of any dividends paid out to Mr Kretinsky, as well as the formation of a workers group that will meet monthly with the directors of Royal Mail to give employees a bigger voice on how it is run.
It is thought that Mr Křetínský wants to build a pan-European logistics business to rival the likes of Evri or even Amazon.
Eventually, by investing in things like delivery lockers, the hope is that Royal Mail could claw back the market share it has lost in recent years and turn its fortunes around.
He has also said he would not walk away from the requirement to deliver letters throughout the UK six days a week – as long as he is running the service.
