Praha is negotiating adjustments to the joint venture at Holešovice Railway Station

Prague - Representatives of Prague are negotiating the possibilities of amending the shareholder agreement of the Nové Holešovice company, established by the Prague Public Transit Company (DPP) with developers, around which disputes have arisen. This was stated by Deputy Mayor Petr Hlaváček (STAN) during today’s city council meeting, who chairs the working group responsible for resolving the situation. Private partners have already sued DPP for breach of contract, estimating potential damages at 1.3 billion crowns. According to Hlaváček, however, DPP has agreed with them to extend the deadlines. Clarity could be achieved in November.

The Nové Holešovice company was established by DPP in 2021 in collaboration with Karlín Group. Later, CPI Property Group also became involved, owning land around the metro station. The joint venture is supposed to oversee the renovation of the C line metro station Nádraží Holešovice and construction in its vicinity.

The supervisory board of DPP approved the sale of the land to the joint venture this January according to the already signed shareholder agreement for at least 173 million crowns. The chairman of the supervisory board and the deputy mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) also voted in favor. However, he later changed his mind and in the city council, which must finally approve the land sale in the capacity of the general meeting of DPP, he tried twice to advocate for withdrawal from the venture.

He was unsuccessful, but the councilors also did not approve the sale of the land, leaving the situation stagnant for the past few months. In June, a working group was formed at the instruction of the council consisting of representatives from all council clubs to come up with a solution. So far, according to Hlaváček, the group has met three times and discussed possible variants of the solution.

"Now we are in a situation where yesterday (Wednesday) there was a meeting with the stakeholders of the joint venture. On a working level, we agreed to present them with our requests for negotiations to amend the shareholder agreement, primarily regarding points such as the valuation of the land," the deputy said today. According to him, DPP has already negotiated a postponement of the fulfillment of the shareholder agreement until the end of October and is now expected to negotiate another extension of the deadline. The meeting regarding the amendments to the shareholder agreement is scheduled for November 13, according to Hlaváček. "I believe we will reach a consensus," Hlaváček stated.

The director of Karlín Group, Jan Ludvík, confirmed to ČTK that a meeting with city representatives took place, albeit at the end of a three-month extension period. "However, we decided to give DPP another month so that we can assess the proposed amendments to the contractual documentation announced yesterday (Wednesday). If the proposed amendments do not harm the joint venture, we could accept them and thus avoid court. It also depends on how quickly a possible agreement is reached; we are already losing another year compared to the original project schedule," he stated.

The chairman of the opposition ANO council club, Patrik Nacher, stated in the discussion that in light of the passing time and the potential damages to the city, the leadership of the metropolis should come up with a clear solution to the situation. Similarly, Adam Scheinherr, the chairman of the opposition Prague Sobě, expressed his views. "An incredible eight months have already passed since the moment the coalition of ODS and Pirates halted the project. Instead of any results, Prague residents are left waiting in vain for the reconstruction, and the leadership of Prague is not coming up with a clear and, above all, prepared solution," he stated.