Final Word from Thursday, September 4, 2014
It's been a busy few days in the House of Bakala. First, Michaela Maláčová sold her flagship activity, the Česká Miss beauty pageant. Then NWR's bondholders approved the debt-restructuring plan proposed by the management, giving Zdeněk Bakala some breathing room before the OKD mines bite the dust and tenants of his RPG Byty start skipping their rent payments en masse. Then NWR's shareholders realized the full implications of the new-share issue, sending the stock down 27% in three days. In the meanwhile, Erik Tabery of Respekt announced a reversal of his ban on articles about Bakala (who owns the magazine), citing the changing media scene. Bakala's BMM then revealed that it's in exclusive talks to sell AWT transport, Bakala's other major domestic industrial asset, to the Poles. Penta then bought into the Slovak media market big time and said that it has its sights on the CR and Poland too. That event is seemingly unrelated to Bakala, but Tabery's hands are now untied to comment when Penta starts circling around his boss's media holdings. [Czech Republic Economia Domus]
Glossary of difficult words
flagship - the best or most important thing owned or produced by a particular organization;
to bite the dust - to fail or come to an end; to die;
big time - on a large scale; to a great extent;
to have/set one's sights on something - to have as an ambition.