At the beginning of last November, the actor couple Petr Štěpánek and Zlata Adamovská met together with the tennis player Karolína Plíšková on the border between Smíchov and Motol in Prague. A trio of celebrities took part in the laying of the foundation stone of the Skalka housing project by the Premiot Group. However, the construction stopped shortly after starting. Premiot has admitted to problems repaying obligations on part of the bonds it issued to have money to build the project.
It was the engagement of well-known faces that was part of Premiota’s effort to attract a large number of small investors through an offer to purchase bonds. Around 3,300 people entrusted the group with money. Many of them are seniors.
The most visible face of the company’s campaigns was the actor Petr Štěpánek. “Perhaps now is the right time to entrust investments to the right hands,” says Štěpánek in the Premito commercial, at the end of which he shakes hands with the company’s owner Ondrej Spodniak
“At the moment I have no other information than everyone else. I am also an investor myself. I believe that the Premiot Group will keep its commitments,” Štěpánek recently told SZ Byznys in response to reports about the company’s financial problems.
For the year 2022, Premiot also had a cooperation agreement with tennis star Karolína Plíšková. In addition to the start of construction of the Skalka project in Prague 5, on the same day, she also participated in the laying of the foundation stone of the Premito development project in Harrachov.
“Karolína Plíšková was in no way a participant in a marketing campaign connected with crowdfunding. The partnership was only of a project nature, when Karolína became one of the ambassadors of the development project in Harrachov. According to the latest news we have, this particular construction is in full swing and does not show any problems,” said Plíšková’s manager Michal Hrdlička.
Despite the contract being concluded only for last year, on January 31, a photo of Plíšková holding a poster with a visualization of the Harrachov project was displayed on the main website of Premiot. The photo was accompanied by the inscription “Join forces with the Czech investment group Premiot Group”.
The photos disappeared
Currently, however, the photo of the tennis player is no longer visible on the home page of Premiot. The photo of the actor Štěpánek also disappeared.
“Petr Štěpánek and Karolína Plíšková became the target of isolated but still unpleasant attacks on social networks. We don’t want that in any case. That’s why we proceeded to temporarily modify the company’s web presentation,” said Premiot’s media representative Ondřej Fér.
In the case of the tennis player, however, the end of the contract with Premito also came. “For the year 2023, due to a change in marketing strategy, we decided not to extend the contract,” added manager Plíšková.
The Premiot group, through a number of subsidiary companies, collected around two billion crowns from more than three thousand people. It also issued special bonds for real estate projects in Harrachov and Prague 5. The company owes other money to investors on the basis of issued promissory notes. Part of the bond issues was due at the end of 2022. Investors received interest, but not the principal.
Scheme of the main companies around entrepreneur Ondrej Spodniak
“The mentioned events concern the company Europa Investment Property CZ, which is in arrears with the repayment of the last tranche of approximately 200 million crowns. We communicate intensively with investors. At the same time, we are working on completing already started transactions, sales of several assets that started last year. Once we achieve a sale, the proceeds will cover the above liabilities with margin. As such, Premiot Group has no foreclosures or repaid loans,” said Premiot owner Spodniak on Thursday.
As the editorial staff of SZ Byznys has already informed, the group has also currently suspended the construction of its largest development project Skalka in Prague 5. Premiot justifies this by negotiating new contractual terms with the construction company. According to information from SZ Byznys, however, the builders cleared the construction site simply because they have not yet been paid for their work.
