West Ham co-owner and businessman Daniel Kretinsky has suffered a fatal blow to his hopes of a £2.2bn deal in his bid to conquer Europe.

Amid all the frenetic drama of clubs trying to get big deals done during the summer transfer window, West Ham’s co-owner Daniel Kretinsky was working on one of his own.

Kretinsky became West Ham’s second biggest stakeholder behind David Sullivan when he purchased 27 per cent of the club in November 2021.

West Ham fans do not hear much from, or about, ‘secretive’ co-owner Kretinsky.

But when they do, he’s usually spending some serious money on investments.

While the Hammers were re-investing the money made from selling the likes of Declan Rice in the summer, Kretinsky was involved in yet another high-profile business takeover attempt.

West Ham co-owner Daniel Kretinsky suffers fatal blow to hopes of £2.2bn deal in his bid to conquer Europe

At the end of July we reported that the Czech billionaire was one of the last remaining bidders for German utility firm Steag.

Kretinsky’s energy holding company EPH was competing with Spanish investment firm Asterion to win over the eight west German municipalities that own Steag. It was reported a winning bidder would be announced by the end of August.

And West Ham co-owner Kretinsky has suffered a fatal blow to his hopes of a £2.2bn deal in his bid to conquer Europe.

While all eyes at West Ham were on the last week of the summer transfer window, it may have gone unnoticed that Spanish infrastructure investor Asterion won the race to acquire Steag in a deal valuing the business at around 2.6 billion euros (£2.2bn), committing to the power company’s transition into a green energy producer.

Business site Investing reports that Asterion have brought Kretinsky’s ‘acquisition spree in Europe’ to a halt.

‘The Czech billionaire has recently embarked on an acquisition spree in Europe’

“Asterion outbid Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, according to four sources with knowledge of the negotiations…” Investing.com reports.

“Kretinsky, who was vying to buy Steag through his energy holding company EPH, teamed up to bid with Germany’s RAG foundation, which helps Germany transform coal mining regions into areas for renewable energy, according to the sources.

“The Czech billionaire, who built his wealth in the energy industry, has recently embarked on an acquisition spree in Europe. He has already struck a deal to purchase struggling French retailer Casino and is currently in talks to become a shareholder in the IT consulting company Atos.”

It was the latest in a series of big money business moves by Kretinsky since he arrived at West Ham, which included buying a £37m castle near Paris.

Back at West Ham, fans are certainly happy with the investments being made in the playing squad.

Although many supporters were disappointed by the lack of a striker or full-back signing, the circa £122m spent on Edson Alvarez, James Ward-Prowse, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Mohammed Kudus looks very good business indeed.

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