Illustration photo – Czech financier Pavel Tykač.
Prague – Entrepreneur and owner of the energy group Sev.en Energy Pavel Tykač is negotiating the purchase of Mafra publishing house. He stated this in an interview for Czech Radio. As for Mafra, we have shown interest, but the negotiations are at the beginning, said Tykač. The Mafra group, which is one of the largest media houses in the Czech Republic, falls under Agrofert from the trust funds of the head of the ANO movement, Andrej Babiš.
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According to earlier information from Forbes magazine, in addition to Tykač, businessman Daniel Křetínský, who owns the publishing house Czech Media Center, could be another interested party. Forbes reported some time ago that the price of Mafra could be around 150 million euros.
There has been speculation about the possible sale of Mafra for a long time. Unsuccessful presidential candidate and former prime minister Babiš faces suspicions of a conflict of interest. Already in 2017, he transferred companies, including Mafra, to trust funds. Nevertheless, according to critics, he did not completely cut himself off from business.
The Mafra media group reduced its loss to 113 million crowns in 2021 from the previous 868 million. The company's turnover rose by one percent to 2.69 billion crowns. The publishing house's titles regularly reach 3.24 million readers and 7.4 million Internet visitors.
Mafra publishes, among others, the dailies Mladá fronta Dnes, Lidové noviny and Metro, or the weeklies Téma and 5plus2. It is the operator of the servers iDnes.cz, Expres.cz or the portal with timetables iDos.cz. He also runs the music television Óčko and the virtual operator Mobil.cz.
According to last year's Forbes magazine ranking, Tykač was the sixth richest Czech with assets worth 84 billion crowns.
