Final Word from Thursday, March 28, 2019
Who is the single biggest residential landlord in the Czech Republic, with 43,000 housing units? If you immediately think OKD >> RPG >> Domus >> Residomo >> Fondy Bydleni, you're right, but you're still missing several links in the chain. According to Residomo's 2017 annual report, Fond Bydleni 3 of Luxembourg is owned "80.1% by investment funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities Advisors LLC and 19.9% by legal entities acting in concert with Round Hill Capital LLC." This tells us next to nothing about the final owners. When the ÚOHS antitrust office approved the sale in Oct. 2015 of RPG Byty to Fondy Bydleni 2, Petr Rafaj's office stated that the actual owners of the acquiring entity were a trade secret. They were redacted from the antitrust ruling. Since then, Rafaj's office has made a significant antitrust ruling in favor of Residomo about rental rates. In retrospect, this appears about as transparent as Rafaj's actions in the highway-toll tender. [ Czech Republic S.à r.l. Zdeněk ]
Glossary of difficult words
landlord - a person or entity that rents out land, a building or accommodations;
in concert - acting jointly;
next to nothing - almost nothing;
to redact - to censor or obscure (part of a text) for legal or security purposes.