How Pavel built the fortune
Pavel Tykač's fortune rests on lignite, the brown coal mined in the north of Bohemia and burned in Czech power stations. In the 2000s he became a leading shareholder of Mostecká uhelná, a mining company that had been privatised after the end of communism and later traded as Czech Coal. Over the following years he consolidated ownership and became the controlling owner of the business, which was eventually renamed Sev.en Energy.
The core asset is the Vršany open pit mine near the town of Most, which supplies coal under long term arrangements to power and heating plants. Tykač then extended the business downstream, buying the plants that burn the coal. In 2013 his group bought the Chvaletice power station from the state controlled utility ČEZ, and several years later it agreed to acquire the larger Počerady plant from ČEZ as well. Owning mines and power stations together let the group capture margins along the whole chain from extraction to electricity sales.
The timing proved profitable. While European climate policy and rising carbon prices pushed many utilities to sell coal plants cheaply, demand for reliable generation remained, and the energy price spike of 2021 and 2022 turned conventional plants into strong cash generators. Tykač has used those profits to diversify into other energy investments, including businesses outside the Czech Republic.
Lignite is a low value fuel that is expensive to transport, so a mine's fortunes depend on nearby customers. By controlling both the Vršany mine and the plants that burn its output, Tykač reduced the risk that his coal would be left without buyers as other utilities closed units, and he gained direct exposure to wholesale electricity prices rather than only to fixed coal supply contracts.
Companies and holdings
Tykač's main holdings are grouped under Sev.en, which includes:
- Vršanská uhelná, operator of the Vršany lignite mine in northern Bohemia
- the Chvaletice and Počerady power stations, among the largest coal fired plants in the country
- heating and energy trading businesses connected to the generation assets
- international investments through Sev.en Global Investments
The group has said it will run its Czech coal operations in line with national and European rules on emissions and with the Czech government's plans to phase out coal power over the coming decade. Like other owners of coal assets, it faces a limited remaining lifespan for its plants and rising costs for emission allowances, which it has tried to offset by buying energy businesses with longer horizons.
Early life and career
Tykač was born in May 1964 in Czechoslovakia and grew up under communist rule. After the Velvet Revolution of 1989 he moved quickly into finance, which was being rebuilt almost from scratch as the state launched voucher privatisation, a scheme in which citizens received coupons they could exchange for shares in state companies. Investment funds collected many of those vouchers, and control of the funds became a route to influence over large parts of Czech industry.
In the mid 1990s Tykač headed Motoinvest, a financial group that became one of the most aggressive players in this market, acquiring stakes in investment funds and banks. Its activities were controversial and drew scrutiny from regulators and the press at a time when Czech capital markets had few protections for small investors. After that period he turned from finance to industry, and the move into coal in the following decade defined the rest of his career.
His path mirrors that of several Czech businessmen who made early money in the turbulent financial markets of the 1990s and then moved into tangible assets such as energy, where returns depended less on regulation of capital markets and more on operating performance.
Philanthropy and public life
Tykač is one of the least publicly visible Czech billionaires. He gives few interviews and does not have a prominent personal foundation, so his charitable giving, if any, is not well documented. Sev.en, like other mining groups in northern Bohemia, supports local communities near its operations through sponsorship and regional programmes, and the reclamation of land after mining is a legal obligation the company must fund.
His public profile is mostly tied to debates about coal. Environmental groups have criticised the continued operation of his plants, while the company argues that they provide stable power and heat during the transition to cleaner sources.