Czech real estate tycoon Radovan Vítek is reportedly mulling a sale of his CPI Property Group (CPIPG) empire.

CPIPG is one of the largest real estate groups in Central Europe, with assets in all Visegrad Four (V4) countries and Germany.

Vítek “has already met with potential buyers,” Czech business outlet E15 wrote earlier this week, referring to six different sources, and noting that Vítek is ready to consider offers.

A source quoted by E15 stated that CPIPG is “not for sale,” but “rather Radovan Vítek is ready to consider interesting offers. And naturally, there is interest.”     

The reports of a possible sale come after the Frankfurt-listed CPIPG sold several major pieces in its real estate portfolio this year, including the Marriott hotel in Vienna, a residential project in London and an office complex in Bratislava, boosting concluded sales this year to €650mn.

In Prague alone, CPIPG sold the Ramada hotel in the city centre and the Pankrác House office centre in the Prague 4 business quarter. CPIPG has been divesting to reduce its exposure to external debt, but the Czech media speculate the pace of divestment may not be as quick as CPIPG would like.

The CPIPG loan-to-value indicator was 50.9% at the end of the first quarter, online news outlet Seznam Zprávy noted, with CPIPG real estate assets amounting to €17.8bn and debt to €9.1bn.

CPIPG is also coming out of a turbulent 2024 in which it faced accusations by hedge fund Muddy Waters, which accused it of inflating the value of its assets, hiding related-party transactions and misleading investors. CPIPG commissioned an independent White & Case review, which stated in September that Muddy Waters’s accusations were unfounded.

CIPPG's ratings were downgraded by S&P Global as well as by Moody's in 2024.

As bne IntelliNews covered in November, Vítek was to ringfence more than half a billion euros in assets after a Cypriot court ruling in favour of two convicted Czech fraudsters, who claim they were themselves swindled out of their secret investment in his CPIPG.

The Cypriot court ruled in favour of Czechs Marek Čmejla and Jiří Diviš, who claim that Vítek cheated them after they secretly put money into boosting CPIPG's expansion in the early 2010s. Vítek denied that any agreement was in place and appealed the case.