Penta continues significant investments

Penta has reported a net profit of €570 million for 2021. The group continues to invest significantly into its portfolio of companies with CAPEX totalling €525 million during 2021. Over the next five years, Penta is planning to invest a further €3 billion into both organic development and acquisitions within its existing investment platforms. At the end of 2021, the Group employed more than 41,000 people and paid a total of €496 million in income tax and other social contributions.

“When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, Penta undertook a number of measures to ensure that its business remained focused on their customers and adopted a conservative approach to capital allocation and cost control. These measures created a solid foundation for the Group’s performance which bore fruit in 2021. Our well-diversified portfolio significantly helped us and, with limited exceptions, most of the Penta companies navigated the pandemic restrictions relatively successfully” explained Iain Child, Penta Managing Partner, he went on to point out, “Our management teams were able to capitalise on opportunities to accelerate digitisation of services and processes. This was especially true at our retail companies Dr. Max and Fortuna, and also our media portfolio. I would also like to acknowledge the support and continued trust of our employees, customers, businesses and financial partners which we received in these challenging times and to thank them for their cooperation.”    

Contributing significantly to Penta Group earnings was the Dr. Max pharmacy chain, along with Penta Real Estate and the Group’s financial services sector. Penta Hospitals was able to improve its operations, while continuing to make large capital investments in its network, in particular into the construction of the Bory Hospital in Bratislava and in modernizing its existing hospitals. For Penta’s media companies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, 2021 was also a very successful year, achieving a record EBITDA.

Penta Real Estate built 1,051 residential units in 2021 (Maison Ořechovka, SKY PARK by Zaha Hadid) and a further 1,726 units are under construction (Bory Bývanie, Nuselský pivovar, Nová Waltrovka, Victoria Palace). It reported assets at the end of 2021 of more than €1.2 billion.

Penta Group and aid to Ukraine

Penta has no investment activity in either the Ukraine or Russia. Within moments of the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine, Penta was organising aid to Ukrainians caught up in the unfolding humanitarian crisis. A total budget of €3 million has been allocated for assistance in three key areas:

• Dispatching medical supplies and humanitarian assistance to hospitals and healthcare facilities in Ukraine;
• Providing aid Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Romania both independently and in cooperation with non-governmental organisations;
• Fundraising throughout the entire Penta Group, which has collected more than € 300,000.