The Strnad-Matera tandem already controls almost nineteen percent of the company. The shares of industrial matadors copy the ownership structure with which the duo joined Tatra – Strnad eight years ago, it holds 65 percent and the rest of the shares are controlled by Matera.
According to sources in the E15 daily, Czech businessmen are particularly attracted to the freight car division. Although they are of high quality, their competitiveness is hampered by low labor productivity during production. “Increasing production efficiency is one of the main goals that the investor has set after a possible takeover. Following this, he wants to integrate other production processes into the company in this division, and thus reduce dependence on suppliers. That would probably require an increase in the number of employees, “a source close to the negotiations told the E15 daily, according to which the transaction could be completed by the middle of the year.
According to the same source, Croats prefer the Czech investor mainly because it is a large Central European manufacturer of wagons and has close relations with the Czechoslovak Group (CSG) experienced in the defense industry. CSG has been owned and managed since 2018 by Michal Strnad, the son of CSG founder Jaroslav Strnad.
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There is another domestic entrepreneur in the Croatian group. Pavel Petrovič, a businessman prosecuted by the Czech police, holds about a nine percent share in it. However, the largest shareholder is the Croatian state, which owns about 28 percent of the shares through its institutions or semi-state companies. The rest of the investors are small shareholders.
The semi-state group has been looking for investors for many years. Last summer, the Croatian government promised to help it with restructuring. However, attracting a strategic investor was a necessary condition.
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The Đuro Đaković Group focuses on the supply of investment units for steel mills, industrial and energy companies and on the production of rail, specialized or armored vehicles. Last year, it reported a gross operating loss of about 16 million crowns, ie 55 million crowns. It has been loss-making for a long time. Now, its market capitalization, according to the Zagreb Stock Exchange, amounts to 152 million crowns.
After leaving CSG, Strnad senior is building a new industrial holding company CE Industries, which, in addition to rail transport, focuses on commercial and industrial activities in energy, heavy engineering or recycling of raw materials.
Petrovic built his business on services related to the establishment of offshore companies in tax havens. He is now also charged with them. In the past, he also collaborated with the Panama office of Mossack Fonseca, from which in 2016 millions of documents about hiding property, the so-called Panama Papers, leaked. Petrovic is also one of the former co-owners of the bankrupt WPB camp.
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