Final Word from Thursday, October 23, 2014
Andrej Babiš said last week that he should have bought Blesk. This begs the question, Who did buy Blesk? Rongosor a.s. won antitrust approval on Feb. 25 to acquire Ringier Axel Springer CZ, and as of that date, Rongosor was owned by Daniel Křetínský and Patrik Tkáč. Since then, though, Rongosor's name has been changed to Czech News Center a.s., and 100% of that entity has been transferred to Czech Media Invest a.s. Now the key information: Czech Media Invest is owned by two offshore companies, Gruenberg Investment B.V. of the Netherlands and Interscope Limited of the U.K. We asked Daniel Častvaj of Křetínský's EP Holding a week ago to reveal who the owners of these offshore companies are, but he declined. What is there to hide? Has the antitrust office been hoodwinked? Since it issued its decision, the ownership of Blesk has changed. Until we see proof to the contrary, we will assume that one of the real owners is Martin Roman and that the nation's bestselling newspaper was bought with money sucked out of ČEZ. [Czech Republic Reflex EPH J&T]
Glossary of difficult words
to beg the question - to invite an obvious question; to raise a question or point that has not been dealt with;
to hoodwink someone - to deceive or trick someone.