EPH Fossil Fuel Empire Makes Billions Betting Against Europe Climate Plan - Bloomberg

Former lawyer Daniel Kretinsky has built a $17 billion fossil fuel empire by scooping up assets at fire-sale prices from utilities rushing to decarbonize. Gautam Naik and Petra Sorge The potential sale of German coal mines and power plants owned by Swedish energy giant Vattenfall AB had become a flashpoint before the negotiations even began. Many in Germany wanted to see the planet- warming facilities shut down, not passed to someone else. The would-be buyer was a small Czech company few had heard of. At times, when the 2016 talks hit an impasse, one of the executives representing the buyer would make a phone call or send a WhatsApp message. On the other end was Daniel Kretinsky, an elusive Czech businessman who controls EPH Group. Kretinsky was always available but stayed in the background, according to a person familiar with the negotiations, who declined to be identified because the meetings in Berlin were confidential. In the span of a decade, Kretinsky has used that discreet dealm

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