Another billionaire created by the Klaus and Mečiar governments is Tomáš Chrenek. After the fall of the regime, the manager of the Bratislava state-owned metallurgical company Kerametal focused on lucrative investments in the steel industry. He reached the capital thanks to a successful project of privatisation of Třinec Ironworks.
After the advent of democracy, the former state-owned enterprise was transformed into a joint-stock company owned by two shareholders. Tomáš Chrenek joined the company from outside when he was appointed CEO. He took an equity stake in the company in 1996.
To make the project work, he insured himself with a series of political alliances, which he built through sponsorship. In 1997, for example, the ruling ODS received 15 million Czech crowns from fake donors. One of the exposed real sponsors was Milan Šrejber, co-owner of Třinec Ironworks.
The privatized share of the profitable enterprise was a lucrative morsel for several players. The seller was the National Property Fund, over which ODS had the greatest influence. After the revelations, Šrejber was therefore forced to sell the stake to Chrenko, who is known to have sponsored political actors as well.
Although later investigations showed that ODS and the specific activities of its interior minister (Ivan Langr – later accused of corruption) were financed by Chrenek himself, the businessman controlled a majority share of the still profitable ironworks.
The profit also created other investment opportunities. Probably the most visible was the acquisition of the Barrandov Studio television studios. However, a much blacker stain is associated with Tomáš Chrenek’s attempt to succeed in the energy sector. Although it ended in failure, according to the entrepreneur’s critics, it was a success for Chrenek.
Moravia Energo, a company that built power plants and traded in energy, went bankrupt in 2010, allegedly after buying huge amounts of electricity at a disadvantage and then failing to sell it at a profit. It left behind multi-billion-dollar debts, but before it collapsed, well-known names managed to feed off it. Stanislav Gross, the former Prime Minister of the Czech Social Democratic Party, owned a stake in the company. He bought it from his party colleague Robert Sýkora. Within a few months, he was to make more than 80 million Czech crowns on the company’s shares. As soon as he got rid of his stake, the company declared bankruptcy.
Another interesting business of the Slovak Czech Chrenek is Agel, the largest network of private medical centres in Central Europe. He also owns the company Pura Vida, which in 2010 bought the castle in Koloděj for CZK 233 million.
