Zygmunt Solorz-Żak

Zygmunt Solorz - Żak (* August 4, 1956 in Radom ) is a Polish entrepreneur. He became known in Poland, especially through the development of the private television station Polsat. Worldwide caught the spectacular acquisition of a mobile operator's attention in 2011. Solorz - Żak is expected to be the richest Poland for years.

Training and Name

Zygmunt Solorz - Zak's birth name was Piotr Krok. Later, he also called himself Zygmunt Krok and Piotr Podgórski. He went through a secondary special education. After his marriage to Ilona Solorz he took the last name Solorz. After the divorce from his first wife, he married Małgorzata Żak and added their family name to his. The businessman has three children and lives in Warsaw.

Entrepreneur

After a long stay in Germany (among other things, he worked in the Polish Catholic Mission in Munich ) and the marriage with Ilona Solorz that he had met in 1983, he founded the mid-1980s the joint company Solorz import-export. This worked in the trade of electric heaters and the import of motor vehicles of the Trabant and Wartburg in East Germany and by Dacia of Romania.

Polsat

In 1992 Solorz - Żak went into the media business in Poland. As the first private television station Polsat in Poland, the transmitter founded by him in 1993 was granted a license for the terrestrial broadcasting. Since the mid- 90s TV Polsat is one of the biggest Polish television stations. In 1999, he also founded a digital TV channel - Cyfrowy Polsat. In 2010, the business merged the two transmitters. The Cyfrowy Polsat unlisted assumed Polsat TV for USD 1.3 billion. The new company is Poland's biggest media companies. The conclusion of the takeover conditions was criticized by investors as Solorz - Żak was the majority shareholder in both companies.

ELEKTRIM

In 2004, took over the business Elektrim Group, a heavily indebted industrial conglomerate that in addition to other investments also shareholders of the mobile operator Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa ( PTC) was. The following sales of ELEKTRIM shares to the mobile operator to the company Vivendi led to years of legal wrangling between the two companies and also participated in PTC Deutsche Telekom. From the settlement of the bankrupt enterprise Solorz received a group of power plants and building plots in Warsaw.

Polkomtel

The consummated in 2011 acquisition of zweitgrößsten mobile operator in Poland, Polkomtel (brand: Plus) was the largest ever corporate takeover of the country. Counter -bidders like the private equity firm Apax and the Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor was Solorz - Żak with a bid of PLN 18.1 billion ( EUR 4.51 billion ) successfully.

Even before the contractor had repeatedly demanded that at least this telecom companies should remain in Polish hands. Sellers were the Polish state-owned enterprises Weglokoks, KGHM, PKN Orlen and PGE and the British telecom giant Vodafone. Vodafone, with 24.4 percent of the shares of the main sellers, said after the announcement of the contract, it had waived the right of veto in order to use the proceeds to pay off debt.

Because of the high purchase price had Solorz - Żak - unlike in previous transactions - part finance the acquisition. In addition to its own capital, the majority is supported by a consortium of banks led by the French Credit Agricole CIB and Deutsche Bank. More involved banks are the Royal Bank of Scotland, the PKO Bank Polski and Société Générale.

The purchase of the mobile phone company is rated as strategically. The combination of a mobile telephone network with the existing structures of the digital Fersenhsenders the entrepreneur provides a good basis on which to evolving in itself to secure lucrative market of Complete offers a high market share.

Other activities and assets

Solorz - Żak is the majority shareholder in the pension fund PTE Polsat, the life insurance company Polisa as well as in investment banking. From the ELEKTRIM deal he received shares in one of the largest energy supplier in Poland, the Zespół Elektrowni Pątnów - Adamów - Konin SA. He is also involved in insulin producer Bioton, the telecom companies Sferia and the TV producers ATM Grupa.

Since April 8, 2009 Solorz - Żak is also the majority shareholder of the football club Slask Wroclaw.

The entrepreneur has been involved for years in the social sector. So already the foundation fundacja Polsat was founded in 1996, which has around PLN 165 million deposited in the course of 15 years of donations and distributed mainly to the renewal of clinics and support of families. In Germany he was in 2008 with a EUR 100 million donation for the creation of a new Research Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research at the University of Munich 's most important donors of the year.

The assets of the entrepreneur has been estimated by the U.S. Forbes magazine in 2010 at $ 2 billion. This makes it one of the richest Poland and is ranked 466 of the richest people in the world. The Polish magazine Wprost estimated the assets Solorz - Zaks in 2011 even to PLN 7.9 billion, which he was the second richest pole of the year.

Collaboration with the Polish secret service

In 2006, it was announced that Solorz - Żak was conducted in the years 1983-1985 the Polish secret service under the pseudonym " Zeg " as an informal employees. On 16 November 2006 he admitted to have signed a commitment to cooperation with the Division I of the Interior Ministry of the former People's Republic of Poland. In the 1980s, he was in possession of a Konsularpasses.