Final Word from Monday, June 30, 2014
If Andrej Babiš's primary goal for going into politics was to displace Petr Kellner as the richest Czech, as some people think, one could say that he achieved this on Fri. by executing a hostile takeover of ČEZ. With ČEZ, Babiš's wealth could now be measured as $13.6bn, to Kellner's mere $11.3bn. All kinds of "buts" are of course attached to this brash way of looking at things: Babiš doesn't own ČEZ outright, so even if he controlled it, could it legitimately be included in his assets? He has only five of the 12 seats on the supervisory board, so can it even be claimed that he "controls" the body? And these five people don't work for him as the owner of Agrofert, but rather as the finance minister, so do they serve his personal empire? These are all valid questions. Shall we let Forbes answer them? Alas, when compiling its list of billionaires, it doesn't count the assets of dictators who derive their fortunes as a result of their position of power. [Czech Republic PPF sup. board global]
Glossary of difficult words
to displace - to take over the place, position or role of (someone or something);
brash - audacious, brazen, bold;
outright - unqualified, unconditionally;
to compile - to produce something (esp. a list, report or book) by assembling information collected from other sources;
to derive - to obtain something (from a specified source).