Billionaire's Grab for French Tech Prize Falters

If corporate Paris is a moveable feast, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky is a regular diner. The Francophile investor known for his tough negotiating tactics and opportunistic timing has a bulging trophy cabinet, from stakes in newspaper Le Monde and retailer Fnac Darty SA to supermarket chain Casino Guichard Perrachon SA. Higher interest rates have seen more goodies fall into his lap as he tries to match strategic assets to a bargain price — paying seven times an asset’s earnings means waiting seven years for a return, he’s reported to have said.

Yet the backlash over his tilt at beleaguered information technology firm Atos SE suggests that, for the first time, he’s bitten off more than he can chew. Shareholders are incensed at the terms of his proposed takeover of its legacy business, politicians are calling for the government to protect a strategic firm that handles critical nuclear infrastructure and banks are testing the water by cutting their exposure to a firm bleeding cash — with one loan sale priced at a 57% discount, Bloomberg News reported this week. Even for a billionaire, influence can come at too high a price.