Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) has signed an agreement on the acquisition of 100 percent of the shares of Equa bank from AnaCap Financial Partners (AnaCap), a specialist financial services private equity investor. Equa bank focuses on consumer lending and serves 480,000 customers. The proposed acquisition is part of RBI’s strategy to expand its presence in selected focus markets. The business models of Equa bank and Raiffeisenbank are very complementary, which is why the transaction would ultimately lead to strategic synergies as well as enhanced digital capabilities. “The acquisition would increase the synergy effect, especially in the area of cost savings and revenue growth,” said Equa bank spokeswoman Petra Kopecká. As of year-end 2020, Equa bank had total assets of more than EUR 2.8 billion, while Raiffeisenbank a.s. reported total assets of EUR 15.7 billion. “Although Equa bank is significantly smaller than Raiffeisenbank in terms of asset volume, the bank’s high level of customer satisfaction and impressive loan growth make it an attractive acquisition for us,” states Raiffeisenbank website. Closing is expected around the end of the second quarter of this year. On the basis that deal completion is successful, there is a plan to merge Equa bank with Raiffeisenbank...
Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari was an Italian motor racing driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari automobile marque. Ferrari Street in Stodůlky (Prague 13) starts southwest from the central part of Klementova Street, bends to the southeast and enters Poncarova Street. The new street is located in a new residential area. The naming or renaming of public spaces in Prague is approved by the City Council. Suggestions can be submitted by every citizen. The proposals are first discussed by the district town hall and then forwarded to the municipal topography commission. About Enzo Ferrari On October 5, 1919, a young Italian car mechanic and engineer named Enzo Ferrari takes part in his first car race, a hill climb in Parma, Italy. He finished fourth. Ferrari was a good driver, but not a great one: in all, he won just 13 of the 47 races he entered. Many people say that this is because he cared too much for the sports cars he drove: he could never bring himself to ruin an engine in order to win a race. In the mid-1920s, Ferrari retired from racing cars in order to pursue his first love: building them....
The Czech government faced the threat that parliament may tie its hands in efforts to combat the coronavirus outbreaks, after a key ally in parliament said on Friday it would not support the extension of emergency executive powers. The Communist Party, which supports Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s minority coalition government, said it had decided to withdraw backing for the powers in response to the government ignoring its calls to reopen schools and ski resorts. “The government did not take our conditions seriously and decided otherwise,” the party said in a statement. The state of emergency provides a legal framework for some of the government’s key measures against the coronavirus spread, such as limits on freedom of movement, and deploying the army to help hospitals overstretched by COVID-19 patients. The Communists said that some of the measures can be implemented by regional governments, while the troops helping in hospitals could go there on a voluntary basis. If the government fails to find the votes in parliament, the state of emergency will expire on February 14. Babis said earlier on Friday that expiration of the state of emergency would be a “catastrophe” which could put lives in danger. Some hospitals have been...
Snow, Frost, and nasty wind. According to meteorologists, the “Beast from the East”, as it is nicknamed by the rapid cooling caused by the Arctic air, is likely to strike the Czech Republic as well. According to the preliminary forecast, in some parts of the country temperatures could fall to -22 degrees Celsius during the night hours, while during the daytime the highest temperatures should reach only -15 degrees Celsius. The upcoming spell of weather, whilst disruptive for some, is not expected to be as extremely cold as early March 2018, although there will still be a bitter wind chill. “As early as Friday, the weather in the Czech Republic will begin to affect the distinctive frontal interface, which will separate the cold polar air in the north from the warm spring air in southern Europe,” meteorologist Dagmar Honsová said. According to the Czech Hydro-Meteorological Institute, next week should also see snow, and not just in upland areas. What is the Beast from the East? The ‘Beast from the East’ is a phrase used to describe cold and wintry conditions as a result of easterly winds. When pressure is high, the Czech Republic tends to experience a polar continental air...
The Czech Republic may consider using vaccines not yet registered in the EU to speed up inoculations, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Friday, on a trip to Hungary which has given emergency approval to Russian and Chinese vaccines. He said he had also spoken about the issue with German officials, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, who he said wanted Russian or Chinese vaccines to be given European approval. European Union countries’ governments are facing a reckoning over vaccination programs that have lagged far behind the United States and former EU member Britain. Hungary so far is the only EU member to have given emergency use approval to Chinese and Russian vaccines. Other EU countries have followed the European regulator EMA, which has so far approved only three vaccines from Western companies. “I have spoken about the Russian vaccine, and about the Chinese vaccine, with Chancellor Merkel, and the chancellor, as well as the Bavarian prime minister, are unambiguously calling for this vaccine to be approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA),” Babis said after meeting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “Now of course the issue is whether the producer asks for the approval or not, and we of course want...
Article by Brandes Gress, teacher at Cherry Tree, English speaking preschool in the heart of Vinohrady. 5. Dětské hřiště pod Rapidem – Nad Primaskou 2468/1A, 100 00 Praha 10-Vinohrady Nestled in the back of Vinohrady between the Strašnická metro stop and the University Hospital, lies a beautiful playground equipped with small built-in trampolines, an enclosed sandbox, and a play structure. This park’s most prominent feature is the rubberized surface that has been designed to resemble the solar system. This is not only fun, but also educational, plus it gives the park a softer surface for when the astronauts crash-land. Although this park has fencing around the sandbox, it is not fully enclosed which can make it difficult to keep children in, and dogs out. Another noteworthy feature (or lack thereof) is this park does not have a public toilet, which could be difficult for children who are potty-training or prefer privacy. 4. Dětské hřiště Folimanka – Park Folimanka, Vinohrady, 120 00 Praha 2 This playground sits at the base of Folimanka shaded by trees and the surrounding buildings. It is completely enclosed giving parents with multiple children (or really fast ones) peace of mind. The sandbox has a selection...
Restrictive measures against the spread of COIVD-19 have stopped working as the more aggressive U.K. variant is spreading and people do not adhere to rules, Health Minster Jan Blatný said. The Czech health ministry recorded 8,032 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday, up from 7,999 the week before. In total, 1.02 million infections have been recorded since March. “The British mutation in the Czech Republic is spreading between 35 and 70 percent faster than the current virus,” Blatný said during a visit to the hospital in Cheb. In the afternoon, the minister called on citizens to comply with the measures. “I know that many people are not only at the end of their strengths, but also at the end of their financial means. Many of us lost our loved ones. The level of hostility in society is growing dramatically,” the minister continued, adding that the situation would not improve without the willingness of people to help. “People should not travel around the country, meet, and if so, they should wear the FFP2 masks”. “Many hospitals are on the verge of emergency care capacity. If we do not start to comply with the existing measures, hospitals will not be able to accept,...
Prague’s Public Transit Company (DPP) is testing a new phone application called „Pozor tramvaj!“ that warns pedestrians of oncoming trams as they cross the street. Their goal is to reduce the number of collisions between trams and pedestrians and increase public safety by keeping pedestrians alert and giving trams priority. Within city limits, 97 trams have been equipped with a device that would alert app users within 100 to 120 meters away via Bluetooth. Users can choose between two modes; the default mode would only work when the phone is in use and the other would use vibrations and ringtone alerts to warn pedestrians a tram is approaching even with the app closed and phone’s screen shut off. A spokesperson for DPP says that last year alone there were 47 collisions between pedestrians and trams although fortunately, no injuries resulted in death. The new application is already being piloted on the 9, 11, and 22 tram lines and will continue at least until the end of June. Milan Slunečko, A DPP tram manager told CTK that the trial period will extend into this summer. “The pilot operation will run until the end of June this year. We will evaluate it...
The flagship event in National Hunt racing is the Cheltenham Festival. For four days during the middle week of March, the best hurdlers and chasers from around Europe will gather at the famous Gloucestershire venue, all bidding to win some of the most historic races the sport has to offer. The Champion Hurdle headlines the opening Tuesday at the Cheltenham Festival. Day two’s feature race is the Queen Mother Champion Chase, while Thursday’s card features the oldest of the four major Championship race, the Stayers’ Hurdle. The final Grade One race to be staged during the Cheltenham Festival is the Cheltenham Gold Cup, a historic three-and-a-quarter mile chase which has been won by many of the sport’s greats. The countdown to the 2021 Cheltenham Festival is well-and-truly on. Yet, the question still remains – will there be a Cheltenham Festival this year? No sooner had last year’s meeting ended, that horse racing was brought to a complete standstill. The coronavirus pandemic stopped all sport taking place in the UK for two months in the Spring, and horse racing didn’t recommence until June 1st. A condensed flat racing season followed, but things were starting to get back to somewhere near normal...
A new service for fast delivery of purchases is currently being created on the Dame Jidlo platform. With Dame Market, people will have their goods at home within 30 minutes. Dame Market can deliver goods to the door within only 30 minutes. Thanks to the minimum order amount set at CZK 99, even very small purchases can be delivered to customers’ homes. Online shopping in the Czech Republic will accelerate significantly. While with standard food delivery services, people wait at least two hours for their order, even in the case of express deliveries, the new Dame Market service on the Dame Jidlo platform will offer customers deliveries up to 30 minutes. With the Dame Market service, it will now enter the market itself thanks to using its own warehouses. “Experience from abroad clearly shows that the future of online shopping lies in very fast delivery of orders. Dame Jidlo has the best prerequisites to be a leader in the quick commerce segment in the Czech Republic, and the launch of the Dame Market service represents another step on our way to fulfilling this ambition,” says Filip Fingl, CEO of Dame Jidlo. The Dame Market service will first be available to...
2020 brought with it several major trends. Despite the continuing rise in real estate prices, the Czechs’ desire to invest in real estate did not decrease – especially in smaller apartments and older houses with good public transport connections. Their number increased by 36% year-on-year, supported by greater availability of rental apartments and declining rental prices. In the largest Prague market, rents returned to the level of 2018 at the end of the year. Key reasons for this development lies in the greater availability of rental apartments and decreasing rental prices. Rent prices equivalent to prices in 2018. On another note, sale prices of old houses and flats increased despite the Covid-19 pandemic, with a year-on-year increase of 13%, the average price of a house went up to 37 635 CZK per square meter, while apartments increased to 67 517 CZK per square meter. Real estate prices increased the most, year-on-year, in the Hradec Králové Region (houses by 31%, flats by 24%), in the Ústí Region (houses by 33%, flats by 18%) and the Plzeň Region (houses by 26%, flats by 16%). Flats in the capital remain the most expensive, where the average price in 2020 was around 95,196 CZK...
During the First Czechoslovakia Republic, artists, patriots, merchants of industry, and the affluent all flocked to Prague which became the country’s cultural hub. It was in the city’s many cafes that the artists, poets, writers, and journalists would gather. For artistically inclined Praguers, the Slavia Café became a local favorite where creatives could converge and enjoy riverfront views. The wealthy elites would also find themselves at Slavia and enjoy close proximity to the National Theater. The era of the first republic is often referred to as the golden age despite the vast wage gap between the affluent and the poor working class. Café Slavia was named for the Slavic pride of its founders and still stands to this day. Situated on Wenceslas Square is Café Evropa nestled within the Grand Evropa Hotel. The Art-Nouveau décor at Café Evropa harkens back to its opening in 1889. It is said that the hotel’s café and restaurant are believed to be the inspiration of the dining room in James Cameron’s classic film Titanic. It was during this era that Parisian coffee grew in popularity and Café Louvre became the go-to spot for the affluent to gather. The café featured a games room with...
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