In this week’s Business News: central bank governor sees brighter economic prospects; betting company Fortuna makes successful market debut; foreigners own almost 70 percent of top companies and half of Wenceslas square; and religious sites signposted for tourism growth.
Central bank governor says growth forecast should be raised
Miroslav Singer
The governor of the Czech National Bank has dropped a big hint that the economy will grow faster than it has hitherto forecast. Governor Miroslav Singer said this week that the bank is likely to improve its upcoming growth forecast in November. The current prediction counts on 1.6 percent growth this year and 1.8 percent next. Mr. Singer pointed to solid expansion of industry and growing order books as signs of stronger growth. Strong export growth in neighbouring Germany, the Czech Republic’s biggest trade partner, is also fuelling expansion. But some of the governor’s colleagues are warning that the recent appreciation of the Czech crown could put a brake on growth.
Fortuna makes successful IPO market entry
Local betting company Fortuna made a successful debut on the Prague Stock Exchange on Friday after placing just over a third of the business on the market through an Initial Public Offer. The oversubscribed IPO, the first on the local exchange in two years, raised 78.3 million euros. Fortuna is the second biggest Czech betting company and also has operations in neighbouring countries. The Czech-based group becomes the first betting company in the region to be traded publicly.
Czechs own around a third of biggest companies
Just under seven-tenths of the Czech economy is in the hands of foreigners according a survey of the top 150 companies in the country by the business daily, Hospodářské noviny. Germans are the biggest owners with around 30 percent of assets. Banking, telecoms and insurance are sectors with the biggest foreign influence with, for example, no major Czech-owned bank in the country. The mining and transport sectors are still mostly in local hands.
Around half of Wenceslas Square in foreign hands
In a parallel survey, the paper found that Czechs own only around half of the properties on the country’s most famous boulevard, Prague’s historic Wenceslas Square. Many Czech companies which on the face of it have ownership are only fronts for foreign shareholders. Among the most active foreign owners are American, British, Austrian and Luxembourg-based investors but Italian real estate companies, present in much of the rest of the city, are strangely absent.
Czech Tourism seeks to plug into pilgrimage tourism
The Czech Republic should attempt to plug into religious tourism and the possibility of hundred of thousands of pilgrims coming to sacred sites according to state tourism promoter Czech Tourism. The agency has printed brochures in Spanish and Italian highlighting Czech Christian monuments and has suggested that the 1150th anniversary of the arrival of missionary Saints Cyril and Methodius in Moravia in 2013 could be an appropriate launch pad for the religious tourism promotion. Millions of tourists every year visit top European pilgrimage sites such as Lourdes, Fatima and Santiago de Compostela. Czech Tourism has also in the past promoted Prague as a Central European magnet for gay and lesbian tourism.
