The Biz Sheet: Weekly business news briefing for Czechia

Cushman & Wakefield has taken over the management of a portfolio of three shopping centers and one retail park acquired from Tesco last year by the Hungarian Adventum Group. The firm assisted its long-standing client Tesco in the sale and is now managing and exclusively leasing 50,000 sqm of retail in the Czech Republic space for Adventum.

Westinghouse Electric Company has named Petr Brzezina as President for Czech Republic. Brzezina primary role is to lead expansion efforts for the adoption of the company's nuclear technology. Brzezina has served as CEO and in other senior executive roles with multiple international companies including Skoda Transportation, and General Electric. In 2021, he was named one of the top Czech CEOs by Forbes magazine.

In November, Westinghouse submitted a bid with Bechtel Nuclear Power Company for construction of one AP1000 unit at the Dukovany nuclear site. Westinghouse will supply nuclear fuel to Temelin beginning next year.

Banking success| Czechia’s ČSOB Group, one of the country’s largest banks, has announced that it made a profit of CZK 17.5 billion in 2022. Its assets rose by 7 percent year on year (to CZK 308 billion) and the number of clients rose by 115,000 to 4.3 million. The total number of newly granted mortgages and building savings loans decreased by 65 percent year on year in 2022, České Noviny writes.

Bankruptcy proceedings|Eiffel Optic which has been operating on the Czech market for more than thirty years, has filed for bankruptcy, reports Seznam Zprávy. In its bankrupt filing, the company, which has 26 stores in the Czech Republic and around 150 employees, said it no longer has the money to pay January salaries.

Not Dell-ightful| Dell has recently announced plans to lay off 6,600 people worldwide, which is about 5 percent of its workforce. Dell’s Czech branch has not unambiguously ruled out any redundancies. It said instead: "the hiring of new employees has been suspended since June…we have reduced other expenses since then,” as written in E15.cz.

A strong partner|The Czech Republic was part of Germany’s top ten largest trading partners in 2022, analysis from the Czech-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry shows. Czechia exported goods worth EUR 58.7 billion last year, with an 18 percent year-on-year increase in exports. The turnover of mutual trade increased by 16.5 percent year on year, to EUR 113 billion as reported by České Noviny. Czechia replaced the U.K. in tenth spot.

A high-profile match| Czech period-panties startup Snuggs has received the support of established retailer Baťa in a pairing that will see the young company get an extra CZK 115 million. Snuggs has also broken into the Dutch, German, and Slovak markets. Despite its success, however, the company is not yet profitable, E15.cz reports.

On a good path|Bike seller Outfindo has managed to raise CZK 16.6 million in its latest crowdfunding round, write Forbes. Robert Kyncl, who is the executive director of the Warner Music Group, is a key investor in the project. Outfindo serves as a bicycle-comparison website to ease the process of purchasing new bikes.

A shining crown|The Czech currency is hovering around its strongest level against the euro since 2008. As of Feb. 13, EUR 1 was worth CZK 23.77 – in early March last year it was as high as CZK 25.71. The stronger koruna (aided by a high level of reserves) helps to dampen the effects of inflation but at the same time makes exports more expensive, hurting competitiveness.