The Czech prime minister-in-waiting Andrej Babiš is making a big underwear play by investing in Astratex, the largest Czech online retailer of such apparel. The daily Hospodářské noviny was unable to put a price tag on the move, a 51 percent grab that’s thought to have set Babiš’s Fond Hartenburg back by a few hundred million crowns. The majority of the company’s product line is made up of women’s underwear. It has a major warehouse in the Czech town of Náchod but is a market leader in Slovakia, Poland and Romania. It also has activities in Bulgaria, Austria and Hungary. Revenues rose in 2017 by 35 percent to nearly CZK 600m and could hit CKZ 1bn within three years.
