Ahold Delhaize is buying Tesco’s Czech and Slovak business at an enterprise value of €1.7 billion, taking on more than 360 stores. Ahold puts the price at 7.2 times lease-adjusted EBITDA, or about five times once run-rate synergies are counted.The deal also covers the 113 Žabka convenience stores Tesco runs as franchises, and its distribution centers in Kralupy nad Vltavou, Prešov and Beckov. Tesco expects to close in H2 2027.

In Czechia the deal makes Albert the largest grocer, with almost CZK 119 billion in combined sales against Lidl’s CZK 107.8 billion (Lidl’s figure covers a 15-month period). What Ahold gets is scale rather than momentum: Tesco Stores ČR posted a CZK 387 million net profit in the year to February 2026, but revenue squeaked up just 0.4% to about CZK 44.5 billion.

Blue dots = Albert, Red dots = Tesco

Still, it seems unlikely that every single Tesco store Albert is buying fits its needs or preferences. So, I looked a bit more closely at the coverage of the two chains. Turns out that half of Tesco’s Czech hypermarkets and supermarkets, 77 of 154, have an Albert within 1,500 m as the crow flies. (This assumes a new research tool I’ve been building has the right data, so I’m open to comments)

The overlap piles up in the big boxes: 57 of 91 Tesco hypermarkets have an Albert within 1,500 m, and 15 have one within 500 m. Supermarkets overlap far less, at 20 of 63. The close neighbors are mostly small: of the 46 Tesco hypermarkets and supermarkets with an Albert within 1,000 m, 35 have only have an Albert supermarket to contend with.

Tesco’s own network barely overlaps itself. Leaving out Express, only eight of its hypermarkets and supermarkets have another within 1,500 m. Albert is the opposite, with 198 of its 346 stores already within 1,500 m of another Albert, clustered in Prague (56), Brno (27) and Ostrava (12). No doubt Tesco’s new owner will have to take such issues into account as it decides what to  keep.

For landlords and investors, the question is which boxes Albert reformats, which it shrinks and which it lets go. Lidl, Kaufland and Penny will be reading the same map .

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To be clear, the authority isn’t going after the usual property SPV under a holding — that’s a normal, legitimate structure for liability, financing and exit reasons.

The exemption of dividends under Section 19 of the Income Tax Act exists to prevent economic double taxation within a parent-subsidiary relationship, not to remove profit from taxation altogether. However, the dividend tax exemption does not apply to company owners who are natural persons. For domestic residents – natural persons, a 15% tax is withheld from their dividend’s income.

What the authorities are using is the abuse of law doctrine under Section 8(4) of the Tax Code, and the Supreme Administrative Court applies a two-step test, whether a formally compliant arrangement produces a result contrary to the purpose of the law, and whether the conditions were artificially created with a tax advantage as the main purpose.

So, the line runs between the structure, which is fine, and a specific transaction, which may be challengeable.

How exposed are Czech property owners and developers to this compared to other sectors?

A holding structure with multiple SPVs is not a problem itself. The risk arises when such a structure is created artificially by a shareholder who is a natural person. The Tax Authority deal cases which involve a situation where an owner – a natural person – is directly involved in the ownership structure and there is no change in ownership when the holding structure is introduced. However, there is no economic reason for restructuring as well.  Transactions are carried out solely for the purpose of obtaining tax-exempt income, which is then paid to the owner from accumulated profits. In contrast, in a standard real estate development ownership structure, the holding company is built logically and economically through acquisitions. Cash flows reflect the evolution of the project and are often reinvested after the project is completed.

Are you seeing clients review or delay restructurings, generational transfers or exits because of it?

It is clear that legal practice is shifting in a direction that has recently been shaped by court rulings. When structuring a transaction, owners consider and properly evaluate each individual step, including whether an alternative instrument or structure would be more appropriate.

Is returning capital contributions from SPVs after a sale or refinancing now a risk in itself?

The Tax Authority has also identified as one of the abusive models a situation in which the share or other assets are contributed to the company, followed by a cash payout of the contribution – again from accumulated profits.  This is therefore a variation on the model of selling a share. Such a model is, of course, a clear abusive practice.

In practice, however, equity contributions are commonly distributed to shareholders, and this can raise a genuine concern as to whether such a transaction might be deemed as abusive. Here, too, the specific circumstances must be evaluated. Courts often emphasize the timing and sequence of actions. If everything happens in rapid succession without any apparent economic or other justification for such actions, the situation may be deemed an abuse.

Once again, returning of equity contribution or refinancing is not the issue; what matters are the specific circumstances and reasons that led to it. Court rulings often show that, while taxpayers clearly define the economic reasons, they lack the evidence to support their claims.

How are buyers in share deals dealing with this? More tax due diligence, indemnities, escrow?

Yes, buyers are protecting themselves more, and rightly so. When you buy a share in a structure, you inherit its tax history, including the risk of a reassessment of a past distribution years later.

In the specific case we are discussing, withholding tax was assessed. Unlike the income tax the responsibility for withholding tax payment lies with the payer of the income, not with the recipient. Any unpaid withholding tax and related late payment interest or penalties would therefore be assessed against the company.

As a result, we increasingly see more extensive tax due diligence, tax indemnities where the seller remains liable for historic tax exposure, and escrow arrangements under which part of the purchase price is retained to cover potential reassessments. We are also seeing growing use of warranty and indemnity insurance used to transfer this kind of historic tax risk to an insurer rather than leaving it between buyer and seller. We regularly assist clients with these structural and tax considerations in real estate SPV transactions, from the due diligence phase through to the implementation of appropriate risk-mitigation measures.

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The biggest deal was a 15,938 sqm pre-lease at Pribinova 1 by a company BRF identified only as a financial-sector tenant. As it happens, Tatra banka announced in August that it will move its headquarters into the JTRE building in Eurovea City. JTRE also landed the second-largest deal, a 2,850 sqm new lease at its Pribinova 34. Finance accounted for a third of all leasing, ahead of IT (16%) and professional services (15%).

Vacancy rose almost a full point to 14.40%, from 13.42% in Q2. The forum blames this on the completion of JTRE’s 9,400 sqm A+ Ganz House and two large tenants consolidating into fewer premises. The class split shows where the moves are going: A+ vacancy is 9.56%, while older Class A sits at 18.79%, well above Class B at 12.94%. Nearly 80% of take-up went to A and A+ buildings, and the Dunaj building will soon add about 8,000 sqm more.

Prime rent held at €22.00/sqm a month, up from €20.50 in mid-2025, and BRF expects more growth by year-end as A+ space stays scarce and little is under construction. “The limited supply of prime office space and rents of €22 per square meter per month highlight the importance of early planning,” says Janka Machová of iO Partners.

Like other cities, the problem for Bratislava’s office market isn’t demand. It’s the older Class A stock that tenants are now walking away from. The BRF is made up of CBRE, Colliers, Cushman & Wakefield and iO Partners.

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The timing is no accident. The last 10 km of the D1 between Říkovice and Přerov opened in December 2025, closing the final gap on the Prague–Ostrava motorway 58 years after construction began. The park will connect directly to the D1 and, via the I/55, to the D55. Accolade has also secured a permit for a bus stop at the site, which it will build at its own expense.

Nor is the region new territory. The Accolade Industrial Fund owns the 187,000 sqm multi-storey Amazon distribution centre in Kojetín, and in August 2026 Accolade obtained a permit for a further 36,273 sqm hall next to it. “The availability of people with manufacturing qualifications is crucial for companies when deciding on new investments,” says Martin Makovec, associate director of Accolade’s land development team, pointing to Přerov’s engineering, optics and chemical firms.

On the green side, the project will include photovoltaics on both roofs, heat pumps for the office and welfare areas, and more than 14,000 sqm of greenery covering about 22% of the site.

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The park already has a padel center of about 4,000 sqm run by Padel Powers, and the city has permitted a new trolleybus line of about 5 km to Černovická terasa. Kodr says CTPark Brno will grow by another 40 ha, eventually becoming a €1 billion park. The format is a far cry from the bare-bones logistics parks that industrial developers were building 20 years ago.

“These companies like to be close to the big city,” Kodr said during Expo Real in Munich. “At the end of the day, it’s still all about the employees. The nicer and more comfortable the environment we create for our tenants and their employees, the more likely they are to stay, to grow and to succeed.”

The business case is rent, whereby Kodr’s own admission, CTP is not the cheapest option. “We usually are maybe two euros more expensive, which is a lot of money,” he said. “But clients continue working with us.” More than 65% of his new business comes from existing clients.

Kodr admits the model can’t work everywhere. Highly automated big-box parks outside cities don’t employ enough people to justify the amenities. Greenery is the one constant. “We’re able to spend three, four thousand euros per tree. Our peers are spending maybe 300 euros,” he claims. “They’re traders, they develop to trade, which is fine. But we’re working on a more long-term vision.”

The same thinking explains CTP’s appetite for brownfields. At CTPark Plzeň Kasárny, the former Zátiší barracks CTP bought from the city, Škoda Group opened a 23,000 sqm logistics center in September, and the landscaping includes more than 200 mature trees. Kodr says the park was almost fully let before completion, despite expensive land and construction. In Brno-Líšeň, on the former Zetor site, CTP is building a hall of nearly 50,000 sqm. It features truck access to the upper floor — a first of its kind in the Czech Republic. Kodr says a large tenant has just signed for part of the building.

Owning everything also means paying for its upkeep. Kodr says CTP is spending about €30 million this year on new roofs and refurbished offices and sanitary facilities, with tenants staying in place while the work is done.

None of this has dented demand. CTP signed a record 1,576,000 sqm of leases in H1 2026, up 55% year-on-year, on nearshoring by Asian manufacturers, consumer-goods logistics, pharma and electronics. “While the others are not willing to build because of the cost of funding and the cost of construction, we are not worried about building,” Kodr said.

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“You can have the capital, you can have the occupier demand, you can have the land, but ultimately if you don’t have the energy, then that really dictates where you can develop and operate,” said Camila Malzkorn, head of transaction management logistics DACH at Redevco. “It’s a structural bottleneck.”

Demand for power is climbing from several directions at once. Heating is moving off gas, which Europe wants to use less of since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Car fleets are going electric, and heavy trucks will follow. Automation, cold storage and AI-guided forklifts all draw more current than the conveyor belts and pickers they replace.

DHL now treats grid capacity as a gate in its site selection. During due diligence on a plot, it files a power request with the municipality. “If we don’t have power, the deal’s off,” said Derk Gillis, director of development and EMEA capital markets at DHL Real Estate Solutions. New DHL buildings are designed with at least two to three truck parking spots wired for 300 kW charging, and the grid connection is sized for that from day one.

CTP points to the Netherlands as the warning for the rest of Europe. “The lack of power basically stops a lot of developments,” said Maarten Otte, chief investment officer of CTP. For manufacturing tenants, energy is already one of the main factors in choosing a location. The developer now describes energy as a third business line alongside its standing portfolio and development pipeline. It is running battery tests in Germany, Amsterdam and Slovakia and plans to put roughly €20 million more into storage over the coming year. “It’s not new, but it’s now starting to become more feasible from a financial perspective,” Otte said, comparing batteries to solar panels a decade ago, when they still needed subsidies to pay back.

The grids themselves remain underinvested. Until that changes, the sites that matter will be the ones with a connection already in place.

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The main thrust of his comment was that current growth is supported above all by demand accumulated in previous years. Construction, however, continues to be held back by persistent, even chronic obstacles that the state should resolve.

While real GDP in 2025 reached 147.7 percent of the 2005 level and construction work prices rose to 169.7 percent, real construction output reached only 107.3 percent. It’s that gap that Zajíček believes the state must zero in on. “As recently as 2024, real construction output had in essence not even reached the level it was at before the financial crisis. Meanwhile the Czech economy grew markedly, and construction work prices grew even faster. The results of one strong year change nothing about that,” said Chamber of Commerce president Zdeněk Zajíček.

He was referring in that last comment to the fact that 2025 was an exceptionally strong year for construction. The value of construction work rose 13.7% y-o-y to CZK 791 billion. Construction output increased by 10.9 percent, of which building construction by 10.5 percent and civil engineering by 11.5 percent.

By contrast, output has been again falling in 2026.

“Last year’s numbers are undoubtedly good,” said Zajíček. “But we should not interpret them as meaning Czech construction has been cured. For the most part, we’re just seeing the realization of demand and projects that accumulated over many years. The weak spot remains the state’s ability to create the conditions for projects to be prepared and permitted faster,” said Zajíček.

While a new construction law appears to be on the horizon, the state still needs to translate the reform into practice. It will have to retain experienced officials and manage their transfer into the new unified building administration. Above all it must finally get the digital tools running that will actually help people and companies.

“Czechia cannot afford more years of waiting,” said the HK ČR president.

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A legal degree never hurts, but how did that help you get going here?
I have a transactional legal background. I’ve been in real estate for more than 10 years and a real estate lawyer since 2019. I was a transactional lawyer and did asset management as well. I find it really helpful to look at the transaction and the whole asset cycle from different perspectives. That’s where a lot of added value comes in. You’re not only looking at what happens during the transaction, but also what happens when you own the building.

It’s very exciting. I love to start really early on the deal because then you help the whole way through. Especially in deals where the transaction insurance makes a huge difference, that’s very rewarding. It’s also just a way for me to go out into the market and get the deal — that’s very satisfying. Especially since we’re the newcomer, with the less-established brand.

It sounds like before you were working on deals that other people brought to you. Now you’re out there, hunting on your own.
Exactly. When I was a transactional or real estate lawyer, I was doing prep work or sitting in meetings with a partner who got the deal. In asset management, we had landlord reps, so it wasn’t us going out. Now it’s me. It’s very satisfying to start from scratch. But it’s not just the transaction. I’m trying to build long-standing relationships with clients so I can help with the whole portfolio. They know they can call anytime. I think that’s very helpful.

Walk me through how a typical deal comes together in transaction insurance.
There are only a couple of options. Either very early on the client knows they want a clean exit, or they need to wind down the company after closing, or there’s some issue they need to secure. They might not want to give a corporate guarantee, so they’re looking for options. If they think of this early on and then I’m involved from the start. If there’s an issue that comes up and we solve it through transactional insurance.

How can insurance speed up a transaction?
Because you know early on that you don’t have to negotiate a lot of things in the SPA. The time limits, the financial limits, the baskets, all of those are usually covered by the insurance. The seller can wind down, and the buyer is okay with that, because they have the insurance company on the other side with a robust process for claims. Usually both sides end up satisfied.

If we come in later in a transaction because of specific risk that can’t be mitigated, that’s where you help overcome deal breakers.

What are the different products you offer?
There’s title insurance that secures your title to shares or real estate, including any identified title risks. Then there’s W&I insurance, warranty and indemnity, which secures the seller’s warranties in the SPA up to a limit. There’s also tax insurance, which secures tax risks above certain thresholds that you might not cover under W&I.

How has title insurance changed over the years?
The product has evolved a lot. It used to be a very formal product you got if there was an issue, so it acted more of a risk management tool, often connected with restitution proceedings. Now it’s more commercially minded. It’s also a financial tool because you save on lawyers’ fees since you don’t have to negotiate the SPA as much. For the seller, they get a clean exit. They can wind down the company rather than keeping the structure for seven years to warrant the fundamental warranties. More broadly, it’s moved on from being a very formal, fairly expensive tool to one that’s not so expensive anymore. We can do smaller deals and it’s more commercially minded.

Do Czech companies and international companies use it to the same degree?
Definitely not. Foreign entities usually use it a lot more. They’re used to it from their home countries. Czech clients know the old product from 10 or 15 years ago, which was expensive and more of a risk management tool. But as a Czech entity that understood the local risks, they usually didn’t need it unless there was a big issue.

Increasingly, Czech clients are going abroad where the other party required it, so they experience what’s essentially a completely new product. The pricing is way down. Once we explain it’s not only risk management but a financial tool, and they use it and find it’s a smooth process, they become more willing to use it again.

Just to be clear, they’re not buying the insurance from you. Explain where Reassurance sits in the food chain.
We’re a broker. We get all the information from the client, like the pricing and the insurance coverage from the insurers, both title and W&I. Then we prepare what we call an MBI report where we show the different options, different pricing, and propose what we feel is the best solution for the transaction. We take into account how the SPA or transaction is structured, what the due diligence findings are, and what both sides require.

How many other brokers are your clients typically talking to?
Usually you have only one insurance broker. The insurance companies have to give the same quote for the same deal. It’s not like they can give Reassurance a quote that’s 10% less than someone else, unless we present a different set of options. Technically you can shop for brokers before they go out and talk to the insurers. It’s not a cutthroat business. We’ll all try to get a deal. But I have to say the competition is very professional. Once you get the mandate, everyone else steps back.

How has the market changed even since you joined three years ago?
When I joined, I knew about five transactions and maybe one was insured, usually for some specific reason like a fund winding down. Now out of five transactions, maybe three are insured. The use of the product has accelerated as it’s become more commercial and more reasonably priced, even for smaller deals.

Which sectors are the busiest for you?
Everybody’s talking about residential, but that’s difficult for transactional insurance because at the end you have individual units. But built-to-rent is new, and we see a lot of BTR and student housing in Poland. I’m waiting to see if that comes here as well.

Poland uses insurance much more than the Czech Republic, partly because they’re much more funded by foreign entities. Here it’s about 90% Czech capital. In Poland it’s like 90% foreign capital. I sometimes see trends coming from Poland to the Czech Republic. In any case, for transactional insurance, it’s really logistics, office, and retail right now.

Do you think this year will be bigger than last, and next year bigger still?
I think it may be. We had a huge year in 2025, but I don’t think we’re slowing down in the next two years. What we saw last year was a lot of smaller deals in the first half and big ones in Q4. Now it’s been pretty consistent throughout the year. Small deals, big deals, mid-sized deals. It’s more of a mix rather than being weighted toward the end. We’ll see what Q4 brings.

Anna Vondrackova is Senior Transaction Advisor for REassurance

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It’s a combination of both. We’ve been trying our best to be active in the market and have been quite successful over the last couple of years.

You do a lot of leasing work as well, but the big transactions are important for the bottom line, and for visibility.
Our advantage compared to some of the bigger competitors is that we also have strong day-to-day business, including the leasing services. We’ve been working for major players in the leasing market for years now. This helps you survive when there’s less investment activity. Even in COVID times, there was a lot of leasing work with all the COVID amendments and leasing work in general since tenants started reducing the size of their offices. The work is always there.

But yes, big transactions are of course important. I usually call them the cherry on top – the kind of thing you put on LinkedIn. They have real added value, though. Everyone knew the Palladium transaction was happening last year, not just people in real estate. Those deals bring you credibility and reputation, which is a good reference for the future. And yes, the big transactions are also commercially rewarding, because they involve an enormous amount of work, including all the due diligence and financing.

The majority of your work is still real estate, then?
We’re seen as a real estate boutique firm, and we don’t fight that perception. I’d say 70 to 80% of our work is real estate related. But real estate transactions are essentially M&A deals — the process, the contracts, the due diligence are the same whether you’re buying an office building or a factory. So, we naturally do M&A work as well. Then there’s a lot that comes from cross-selling, because when a client already trusts you, they come to you with other issues too. So, we’ve done regulatory work, ESG, GDPR, litigation, employment law, etc.

How tough is the competition between legal companies for larger transactions?
It’s been quite intense for many years. We compete against big Magic Circle law firms. It means we can be more competitive on pricing and offer comparable expertise, local knowledge, language skills, and understanding of the environment. And what we can also offer – I’d even say it’s in our DNA – is a commercial attitude.

What do you mean by that?
It means you’re not only sitting in a meeting waiting for the client to ask if something is compliant with this or that provision of law. They expect you to guide them through the whole process from the LOI stage, give them insights about what market practice is, or share your experience with such types of transactions.

You’re basically a partner with them, rather than just a counselor waiting for legal questions and then saying, “it’s not possible because the law says otherwise.” That’s not what the clients want. They want to be protected, in time and without needless hassle. They want you to tell them how to make things possible, not just that they aren’t possible. That’s our approach: to be there as a partner who can share experiences from what we’ve done.

What was significant about the Wood/Satpo deal?

It was the biggest residential transaction of the year, and one of the biggest and most interesting deals of my career. It’s not a standard built-to-rent transaction, which you see every now and then these days. This was different in terms of scale, thanks to a portfolio that consisted of about 760 flats in old panelák buildings.

But beyond that, it has huge development potential. It could bring up to 90,000 sqm of new residential area situated directly on the new Metro D line, which will have a station in the middle of it. It’s unique in Prague in terms of volume, connectivity, and the potential of the whole area.

The deal took over 12 months from the first investment memorandum to closing. There were many players involved, bank financing, and – remarkably – Wood opened a new fund and collected a huge amount of money in a very short time.

What has changed to make BTR deals work now? Developers used to just sell units individually for a higher price.

The key factor is pricing. People simply cannot afford to buy flats anymore. Even the middle class is struggling. If you want a two-bedroom apartment in Prague, you need 10 million Czech crowns. You need about two million in equity and then there’s a 5% interest rate on the mortgage – for a young family, that’s simply becoming unaffordable. So, developers realized it’s better to do BTR and sell to big investment funds that have the money and need to buy. The funds can then offer an excellent product with stability and guaranteed indexation that tenants can afford.

What is the impact of AI on your business and clients?
Even from the first meeting or the first email, you can tell that a client has been consulting with an AI agent. It’s like when you go to a doctor after asking ChatGPT about your symptoms – you think you know what’s going on. But then the doctor says, “Yes, in general you’re correct, but in your particular case, you also need to consider this and that.” And I think it’s the same with any profession, including ours.
On the other hand, it does give them some background, so they’re actually more prepared for meetings. Your role is still to advise on what works and what doesn’t because of, for example, specific local regulation.
But the concern I had already two years ago is that AI still can’t just say “I don’t know.” There are already cases in Czech courts where a lawyer relied on an AI-generated summary or even case law, which turned out to be completely fabricated.

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