Always looking for better opportunities

When NATLAND Group took over the Prominecon Group in 2010, their organization was was best known for their eponymous Prominecon construction company, who had 18 years of experience but also major problems.

The group was made of 16 ownership interests with various areas of focus: facilities, guarded parking, development projects - both on their own, and also some with other companies, including: hotels, blocks of flats, and office buildings. The problem was their structure of costs taking into account the crisis in the construction sector as well in business financing in general.

NATLAND Group immediately went to work addressing the financial problems. Right from the beginning, it was necessary to increase their capital. Next was the combination of reducing their costs by eliminating activities which weren’t directly related to their core business, simplifying their company structure, and -like any of our investments – providing some direct management. We also revised their business strategy, highlighting the group’s key competitive advantages. We made some changes to some key positions in plant management, and implemented some new project management tools specialized for linear structures. This was followed by acquisitions within the sector of railway construction.

After the group’s restructuring in 2013, which included the mentioned removal of non-essential aspects of their business (mainly their development projects, facility management, and hotel business), NATLAND Group resold the construction portion of Prominecon back to its management (through management buyout). Thanks to all of this, the construction company is still doing business (under the name Vistoria).

When NATLAND Group entered the SK Slavia Praha football club, they were on the brink of existence. They even had lost their license to play in the First League due to having unpaid debts and negative equity.

Our engagement was very intense. When we first looked at it, purely from a numbers standpoint, it didn’t seem like something that made sense to do. According to the balance sheet, there wasn’t any reason to believe that a massive investment of capital in order to stabilize the company was a good idea. However, our ‘bet’ was based on our belief in the brand’s value, its history, and the support of its fans. In the end it wasn’t a strongly verifiable financial parameter, but our strong feeling, which made up our minds to move forward with this project.

The first thing that we had to do was to quickly resolve the club’s financial situation, its overdue debts, and the disputes between the company and both its creditors and its former shareholders. Additionally, it was a main priority for us to remain in the highest level of competition, so we appealed the clubs exclusion from the First League.

On top of that, we also faced pressure from the media. Up until that point, our group had very little experience in dealing with the media, and we were venturing into uncharted territory.

We aimed for our length of investment to be about 5 years. But after only 83 days, we received an offer from Ales Rebicek, the co-owner of the club. It is very unusual for our group to get out of an investment so quickly, but Mr. Rebicek’s offer was quite favorable, so we accepted. Even though it was only a short time, we were able to stabilize the company, get the club back into the First League, and lay the groundwork for the club’s future development that the new management could build upon.

In 2007, NATLAND Group was involved in saving and recusing the premier league basketball team from the Czech city of Pardubice. The BK Pardubice club had operated until then under the as a civic association, without standard financial management and having a strong dependence on funding from the city’s budget.

Pardubice had high expectations for the club considering their history that stretched back to 1956, and their possibility to play their matches in the CEZ Arena, the best basketball stadium in the Czech Republic.

Our group entered the project by transitioning the club’s “A team” to the newly established company: BK Pardubice, a.s. It was necessary to invest into starting to work with children and teens through a civic association. Then we defined and redefined many aspects of the project, including: the pricing model for sponsorships, engaging in talks with the city of Pardubice regarding use of the CEZ Arena, and recruiting new and experienced players (both from home and from other countries). We also set a new budget for 2008 and secured the finances for it. The team, included the coaches, were all committed to the new implementations made inside the organization. These steps were necessary to ensure a gradual increase of sponsors and partners, both inside the region and beyond.

Then it was necessary to bring the club to life and define a new business and marketing strategy. We knew from the beginning that restructuring the club would be a long-term project,” says Tomas Raska, majority shareholder of NATLAND Group and former active basketball player.

Over the course of four years we managed to stabilize both the team of players and the club’s revenue. The club has firmly established itself in the top tier of the NBL, has returned to competing across Europe, and boasts the highest average attendance of basketball matches in the Czech Repulic,” adds Tomas Raska.

NATLAND Group sold it majority stake to club management in 2011.