Kapsch's worst nightmare

Kapsch and its aggressive team of lawyers and PR professionals did everything they could to prevent bids in the highway-toll tender from being submitted and then opened, from filing complaints with the ČSSD-friendly ÚOHS antitrust office to persuading trade and political groups to support their cause and suing the Final Word for libel. It didn't work. Bids were opened on Thur., and Kapsch's worst nightmare came true. Not only did it find it necessary to reduce its price compared to 2007-2016 by 44% and compared to 2017-2019 by 24%, but it was also undercut by 20% by a satellite-based operator. According to one source, Czech Toll (PPF) bid Kč 10.79bn for the 2020-2029 period, followed by Kapsch (Kč 13.50bn) and NÚSZ of Hungary (Kč 14.05bn). The Germans (CYO) were far back at Kč 48.90bn. Kapsch will now have to put its aggressive team of lawyers and PR professionals to work defending against allegations of 12 years of gouging Czech taxpayers.