Czech billionaire, often referred to as the "Czech sphinx" for his avoidance of the limelight. He is 50 years old and has amassed a fortune of around $10bn. His approach has been to focus not on flashy new industries but those that serve consumers' essential needs.
The heart of Kretinsky's business empire is EPH, a privately held energy company that is one of Europe's biggest—and dirtiest. It generates electricity mainly through coal- and gas-fired power plants and handles the storage and transmission of natural gas across the continent. Kretinsky formed EPH in 2009 with the backing of J&T, an investment firm where he had worked as a lawyer, and of Petr Kellner, a Czech billionaire who was one of his closest confidants until his death in 2021.
His speciality became scooping up dirty assets at bargain prices that listed utilities were forced to sell under pressure from investors and governments. In 2016, for example, he bought LEAG, a coal-mining business in Germany then owned by Vattenfall, a big Swedish utility.
EPH aims to be coal-free by 2030. Some power plants running on the fuel will be converted to gas or biomass; others will be spun off or gradually closed. Across EP Group, his holding company, Kretinsky wants the share of profits coming from energy to fall from two-thirds to a half within three years.
Kretinsky has been shifting his focus beyond energy. In February 2025 he took Metro, a big German wholesaler, private. In April he bought International Distributions Services, the parent company of Britain's Royal Mail. He also holds stakes in retailers including Britain's Sainsbury's and France's Casino, and owns 28% of Fnac Darty, a French electronics retailer, for which he launched a takeover offer on January 26th 2026. In logistics, he has invested in GLS and PostNL, two Dutch delivery services.
Kretinsky controls a swathe of the Czech media market as well as Editis, a French publishing house, and magazines including Elle and Marianne. He previously owned 49% of Le Monde, a leading French newspaper, but sold his stake in 2023.
In November 2025 Kretinsky became a major shareholder in TotalEnergies, the French oil giant.
Kretinsky believes Europe still has many advantages, including the scale of its market, the quality of its institutions and the standard of its education. But he worries that taxation and red tape are deterring capital and talent. "We are strong, but we are confused," he says.
The faster I go, the behinder I get.