Czech billionaire becomes PM with promise to cut ties to business empire

Billionaire Andrej Babis has been appointed as the Czech Republic's new prime minister, with his full cabinet expected to take office within days.His appointment followed a key demand from President Petr Pavel - a public pledge by Babis to relinquish control over his vast food-processing, agriculture and chemicals conglomerate Agrofert."I promise to be a prime minister who defends the interests of all our citizens, at home and abroad," Babis said after the ceremony at Prague Castle."A prime minister who will work to make the Czech Republic the best place to live on the entire planet."These are lofty ambitions, but Babis, 71, is used to thinking big.Agrofert is so deeply embedded in the Czech commercial ecosystem that there is even an app to help shoppers avoid buying products made by the group's more than than 200 subsidiaries.If a product - say Viennese-style sausages from Kostelecké uzeniny or sliced bread from Penam - belongs to an Agrofert company, a thumbs-down symbol appears.Babis, who was prime minister for four years until 2021, has shifted to the right in recent years and his cabinet will include members of the far-right SPD and the Eurosceptic "Motorists for Themselves" party.If he honours his pledge to divest from the company he built from scratch, he will no longer benefit from the sale of any Agrofert product – from frankfurters to fertiliser.As prime minister he will have no knowledge of the conglomerate's financial health, nor any ability to influence its fortunes, he says.Government decisions on public tenders or subsidies - Czech or European - will be taken without regard to a company he will no longer own or profit from, he adds.Instead, he says that Agrofert, worth an estimated $4.3bn (£3.3bn), will be placed in a trust managed by an independent administrator, where it will remain until his death. At that point it will pass to his children.This, he said in a Facebook video, went "far beyond" the demands of Czech law.What kind of trust remains unclear - a Czech trust, or one based abroad? The concept of a "blind trust" does not exist in Czech legislation, and an army of lawyers will be required to design an arrangement that works.Critics, including Transparency International, remain unconvinced."A blind trust is not a solution," the head of Transparency International's Czech branch, David Kotora, told news site Seznam Zpravy."There's no separation. [Babis] obviously knows the managers. He knows Agrofert's portfolio. From an executive position, even at a European level, he could theoretically intervene in matters that would affect the sector in which Agrofert operates," Kotora warned.But it's not just food - and it's not just Agrofert.In the eastern suburbs of Prague, a private health clinic towers over the O2 arena. While it is owned by a company called FutureLife a.s, that company is majority-owned by Hartenberg Holding, and Hartenberg Holding is majority-owned by Babis.Hartenberg also runs a network of reproductive clinics, as well as a florist chain, Flamengo, and an underwear retailer, Astratex.The reach of Babis into all corners of Czech life is broad. And as prime minister, for the second time, it is about to get broader.