West Ham shareholder Daniel Kretinsky is sitting on a massive cash pile as he continues his company acquisition spree across Europe.
Last week the head of Thyssenkrupp’s steel business said he was open to talks with West Ham shareholder Daniel Kretinsky about his becoming an investor in the business, German newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) reported on Friday.
Steel CEO Bernhard Osburg told WAZ that Kretinsky’s background in the energy sector was a qualification. “First of all, there is a logic that can’t be dismissed out of hand,” he told the paper, when asked about Kretinsky’s potential role as an investor in the German steele company.
A person familiar with the matter told Reuters in June that Kretinsky was interested in acquiring a stake in Thyssenkrupp’s steel business, which is currently looking for a buyer or co-owner.
But the Czech billionaire is not getting it all his own way, according to Investing.com, Kretinsky has lost out in the race to buy German utility company, Steag, after Spanish infrastructure investor, Asterion, announced that they had won the contract.
The deal is expected to be closed for in the region of a not insignificant sum of €2.6bn and will surely come as a huge blow to the Czech billionaire, who is known to be embarking on an ambitious acquisition spree in Europe.