In this week’s Business News: falling fortunes for Sazka, foreign labour leaves Czech market, threats and promises in ad revenue battle, insurance payouts double in 2010, and Czech company lines up British army contract.
Wrong numbers for lottery giant Sazka
Photo: ČT24
The fortunes of Czech lottery company Sazka have dominated business news this week. Basically the numbers don’t add up at the company after it was saddled with paying for Prague’s O2 arena, the site of the world hockey championships in 2004. Sazka’s ongoing profits cannot cover debt and interest repayments on the stadium as well as its commitment to be paymaster for many national sporting associations in the country. Sazka is now being circled by investors, including betting group Synot and financial group Penta, who are keen to relieve the debt burden at the price of a stake in the company. Rating agency Standard and Poor’s underlined Sazka’s fraught situation this week by downgrading its evaluation to its lowest, default, level and the Czech government has said it will not bail Sazka out.
Foreign labour force down in 2010
Photo: Kristýna Maková, Czech Radio
The number of foreign workers in the Czech Republic shrunk by 6.6 percent in 2010 to stand at just over 215,000. Slovakia counts for just under half of the total with over 100,000 workers, followed by just over 42,000 Ukrainians and just over 19,000 Poles. The Ukrainian contingent fell most over the year, dropping by around 15,000. But there were increases in workers from Slovakia, the Balkans, Russia, West European counties and the United States.
Ads battle heats up over Czech Television
The battle over whether public broadcaster Czech Television continues to screen adverts and pull in advertising stepped up this week with commercial tv companies pumping up the pressure for a pullout. The heads of private broadcasters Prima and Nova this week offered to pay into the state film fund if earlier promises for Czech Television to stop screening ads are kept to. A proposal from lower house lawmakers has been prepared that would allow the public broadcaster to continue tapping ad revenues as long as it finances films and culture. Commerical tv companies are warning they could launch arbitration proceedings against the Czech state if that is allowed to happen.
Insurers hit by flood and hail claims
Czech insurance companies have booked 2010 as their worst year for claims since the Moravian flood bill came in during 1997. Floods at the start of the year from melting snow, further flooding in May and June, followed by flash floods in August and hail damage in September mean collective claims hit harder than the floods of 2002, insurance companies say. Altogether companies booked more than 135,000 claims linked to natural disasters with payouts doubling compared with 2009.
British army armed with Czech e-mail
A Czech company has been recruited to supply the British army with its e-mail solutions, according to the news server Czech Position. IceWarp was the only company which met the price and security conditions set down for connecting the around 200,000 soldiers, including in combat locations such as Afghanistan, following a half year selection process. IceWarp was founded 10 years ago and now sells its services in 27 countries worldwide.
