Blaise Gauquelin, the Central Europe correspondent for the French afternoon newspaper Le Monde, called his editor at the paper’s Paris headquarters to pass along something of interest: One of the two French businessmen who controlled the 75-year-old daily was selling part of his stake to a Czech billionaire named Daniel Kretinsky. Daniel had built his fortune largely on power plants and coal mines across Europe. He also owns part of a pipeline that brings Russian gas through Slovakia to the West.
Daniel’s earlier foray into French media, the purchase of the center-left newsweekly Marianne for 5 million Euros last year, contributed to the staff’s wariness, given that his first big move was to install the conservative commentator Natacha Polony as editor. Daniel, 43, has had a rapid rise under the tutelage of two of the most successful privatization barons in the post-communist Czech Republic and Slovakia, Patrik Tkac and Petr Kellner. His main business, EPH, comprises more than 50 companies and has annual revenue of 6 billion euros.
