Final Word from Monday, July 25, 2016
If any Czech oligarch could accrue synergies from buying Plzeňský Prazdroj brewery, it's Andrej Babiš. He could add beer to the list of bread, meat and milk products he already supplies to retailers, and he could use invoice-matching and EET data to squeeze out any pubs or restaurants that refused to carry his brands. He could even figure out how to get EU subsidies to do so. But no, the Czech oligarch interested in Prazdroj, according to Euro magazine, is Petr Kellner of PPF. Why? The synergies with Home Credit or O2 CR are few and far between and, unlike the O2 spin-off Cetin, Prazdroj doesn't operate in a monopoly or oligopoly environment dependent on high barriers to entry and good relations with government agencies. PPF would likely be interested in either pulling a Bakala (loading Prazdroj up with debt, hyping an IPO) or a Tvrdík (selling it on to the Chinese), neither of which would be good news for Czech beer lovers. [Czech Republic Jaroslav Zdeněk OKD CEFC]
Glossary of difficult words
to accrue - (of a benefit or sum of money) to receive in regular or increasing amounts over time;
synergy - the concept that the value and performance of two companies combined will be greater than the sum of the separate individual parts;
few and far between - scarce;
spin-off - a subsidiary of a parent company that has been sold off, creating a new company;
to pull - to engage in;
to hype - to promote or publicize (a product or idea) intensively, often exaggerating its benefits.