Babis battles MF Dnes

Andrej Babiš of Agrofert announced that he's withdrawing from the privatization of Unipetrol because the situation at the petrochemicals company has changed dramatically. He gave the story only to Hospodářské noviny and used a long interview with HN in part to criticize MF Dnes. He said MFD has done a lot to damage his reputation. He told HN he underestimated the power of the media as an instrument for political and economic combat. The systemic attacks on him by some media, he said, were a combination of "looking for sensation where there was none, envy, hate and of course the competition." If Agrofert were as untransparent as some media suggest, he argued, it couldn't have the bank relationships it does. When MFD asked him yesterday to con-firm that he was pulling out of the Unipetrol tender, he refused to comment.