The billionaire set to become the Royal Mail’s new owner lives in one of Britain’s most expensive homes which was once put on the market for an eye-watering £100 million – and postmen have their work cut out to make their deliveries.
Czech tycoon Daniel Kretinsky, 48, owns a spectacular 15-bedroom mansion in London’s wealthiest street dubbed ‘Billionaire’s Row’.
In 2016, pop star Justin Bieber rented out the property for a staggering £27,000-a-week during a British tour.
Postman have an uphill battle delivering parcels and letters to the exclusive address – it’s one of just 66 palatial homes set on the mile-long Bishop’s Avenue in hilly Hampstead.
Set behind imposing security gates Kretinsky – who has a 27 per cent in Premier League club West Ham United FC and owns nearly 10 per cent of supermarket Sainsbury’s – set up home with his showjumper girlfriend Anna Kellnerova, 27.
She is the heiress daughter of Petr Kellner, who was the Czech Republic’s richest man until he died in a helicopter crash in Alaska in 2021, aged 56.
The former lawyer has built a global business empire worth an estimated $7billion (£5.6bn)
Mr Kretinsky, 48, (centre) with his girlfriend, 27-year-old showjumper Anna Kellnerova (right)
Anna Kellnerova, pictured in 2018, went to university at the same time as Kretinsky’s son
Kretinsky’s ex Klara Cetlova – who he has a child with – was the deputy justice minister in the Czech Republic
His previous partner was Klara Cetlova, a high-flying lawyer who served as Deputy Minister of Justice in the Czech Republic, with whom he has a child.
Kretinsky – known as the ‘Czech Sphinx’ for his inscrutable manner – is attempting to take over the 500-year-old national institution after unveiling a sweetened £3.5billion offer.
The mansion is on the Bishop’s Avenue, dubbed ‘Billionaire’s Row’, in Hampstead, north London
The luxury pad was built for sugar magnate William Park Lyle of the Tate & Lyle family in 1910
The home boasts 15 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms and other facilities suitable for the mega-wealthy
The mansion has indoor and outdoor swimming pools, plus a jacuzzi, sauna, steam room and gym
Perhaps fittingly the mansion was built for sugar magnate William Park Lyle of the Tate & Lyle family in 1910.
The Grade II-listed Edwardian ‘super mansion’ is 25 times the size of an average new build and one of the capital’s largest homes with 25,000sq ft of accommodation set in 2.5 acres of gardens.
Along with its 15 double bedrooms, there are 13 bathrooms and six dressing rooms.
There’s an indoor pool, sauna, steam room and jacuzzi as well as a fully-fitted gym, a cinema complex, along with a bar and a 600-bottle with climate controlled temperature.
There’s also a snooker room, office, library and sun room.
All entertaining and leisure facilities are arranged on the ground floor of the three storey mansion.
The property fell into disrepair after the Bank of China took it over in the 1950s. Around 50 members of staff lived there at one time.
It was bought in 2006 by British property developer Andreas Panayiotou, who employed a team of 120 tradesmen to carry out a lavish renovation costing £40 million.
Hand-carved marble basins were prepared in Italy before being transported to the property while a £250,000 bath made of pure onyx was installed in one of the bathrooms – requiring the floor be especially reinforced.
Panayiotou put it on the market with the £100 million price tag but was forced to repeatedly slash the price before it was eventually sold three years later at a knockdown £25 million.
It was thought to have been extensively refurbished as the property – which was also rented in 2017 by actress Salma Hayek – was sold.
Born in the city of Brno to a mother who was a judge and university professor partner, Kretinsky was just 14 when the Velvet Revolution saw off communist rule in 1989 in what was then Czechoslovakia.
He trained as a lawyer before joining a Slovakian investment group. The majority of his wealth derives from his control of energy giant EPH, which has power plants in Devon, Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire and Northumberland.
A sports fan, he has been chairman of his boyhood club, 37-time Czech champions Sparta Prague, since 2004.
He holds a stake in the French edition of Elle and previously owned part of Le Monde. The billionaire has also explored a bid for the Telegraph.