High level talks took place on Wednesday at the Prague Castle, as a delegation from one of China’s largest state-owned corporations CITIC Group met with the Czech president Miloš Zeman. The Chinese are inspecting the state of affairs surrounding investments made by the failing CEFC Europe, another Chinese corporation with major real estate and business investments in the Czech Republic. What appears to be on the cards is that CITIC will take over a significant portion of CEFC, though the deal is reportedly still months away from going through. CEFC owns a stake in the Czech-based airline Travel Service and it owns real estate assets such as the former Živobanka building on Na Příkopě, Le Palais Art Hotel and the Florentinum building. CEFC appeared set to take over a major stake in J&T Banka, but that deal was scuppered by sudden cash flow problems. CEFC is now selling off most of its real estate assets around the world, but this does not seem to include its Czech assets, at least yet. CITIC’s visit to the castle is confirmation of the key role that Miloš Zeman has played in promoting the influx of Chinese capital into the Czech Republic.
