Final Word from Monday, March 2, 2015
One day after we warned that PPF might be planning to "tunnel" O2 CR by selling the operator's infrastructure to Česká telekomunikační infrastruktura s.r.o., owned 100% by PPF, O2 announced that the assets will instead be spun off to Česká telekomunikační infrastruktura a.s., founded by O2. That's right, O2 will set up a new stock company with the identical name to an existing limited-liability company owned by its majority shareholder, PPF. And both companies will share a representative, Lubomír Král. This reminds us of a different Lubomír, ex-CEO Lubomír Soudek of Škoda Plzeň. He, too, had two companies with similar names, NERO and NERo, and he was charged with using them to siphon money out of Škoda with fake consulting contracts. Apologies in advance to PPF for suggesting any similarity. Soudek, after all, was acquitted on all charges and was praised by the judge for turning Škoda around. [Czech Republic hive off spin telecoms telecommunications]
Glossary of difficult words
to spin off - to divide a company into two or more parts by creating one or more new entities and transferring part of the original company's assets into them;
to siphon off or out - to draw off or transfer over a period of time, esp. illegally or unfairly;
to acquit - to free someone from a criminal charge by a verdict of not guilty;
to turn something around - to reverse the previously poor performance of something and make it successful.