What will we find out about Royal Mail’s new proprietor Daniel Křetínský?

Daniel Křetínský is ready to turn out to be the brand new proprietor of Royal Mail after the sale of its father or mother agency was accepted by the federal government.

The Czech entrepreneur has been described as a “quiet sphinx” for his inscrutable model. So who’s the low-key billionaire and what might new possession imply for this historic British firm?

In line with the Sunday Instances Wealthy Listing, the 49-year-old is now value £6bn – up £2bn on 2023.

He has adopted low-profile strategy to his enterprise dealings, however what we do find out about Mr Křetínský is that he made a big a part of his cash in Central and Japanese European power through a labyrinthine construction of corporations.

This consists of Eustream, which transports Russian gasoline through pipelines that run by Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Within the UK, Mr Křetínský has constructed up fairly a portfolio in well-known manufacturers by Vesa Fairness Funding, a non-public agency which is registered in Luxembourg.

He holds huge stakes in grocery store group Sainsbury’s and the sportswear retailer Footlocker.

And, like others in his wealth bracket, he has a soccer membership or two. These embody AC Sparta Prague, in addition to Premier League membership West Ham United through which he holds a 27% stake.

The businessman and lawyer was born within the metropolis of Brno within the Czech Republic, some three hours away from Prague.

His dad and mom got here from skilled backgrounds, along with his mom working as a prime decide and his father a pc science tutorial.

He studied each regulation and political science, taking on a job as a trainee lawyer in Brno quickly after graduating.

Afterwards he began working for the J&T funding group in 1999, climbing the ranks rapidly and turning into a accomplice in 2003.

Since then, he has constructed an expansive portfolio, together with investments throughout the power, property and retail industries.

Mr Křetínský owns expansive properties in upmarket areas, which embody Heath Corridor on London’s Bishop Avenue – referred to as billionaire’s row.

He reportedly purchased it for £65m and as soon as rented the property to popstar Justin Bieber for about £25,000 every week.

He additionally spent about €21.5m (£18.3m) shopping for a Parisian townhouse down the street from the Elysée Palace from Russian oligarch and fertilizer magnate Dmitry Rybolovlev and his ex-wife.

Mr Křetínský additionally owns a share of the Velaa personal island resort within the Maldives.

On Monday, Křetínský’s EP Group mentioned it had a “mission to make Royal Mail a profitable trendy postal operator with prime quality service and merchandise for its prospects”.

The situations agreed by EP Group embody conserving the model title and Royal Mail’s headquarters and tax residency within the UK for the following 5 years.

It has additionally reached an settlement in precept with unions that embody employees getting a ten% share of any dividends paid out to Mr Kretinsky, in addition to the formation of a employees group that may meet month-to-month with the administrators of Royal Mail to present workers a much bigger voice on how it’s run.

It’s thought that Mr Křetínský needs to construct a pan-European logistics enterprise to rival the likes of Evri and even Amazon.

Ultimately, by investing in issues like supply lockers, the hope is that Royal Mail might claw again the market share it has misplaced in recent times and switch its fortunes round.

He has additionally mentioned he wouldn’t stroll away from the requirement to ship letters all through the UK six days every week – so long as he’s working the service.