Will Agrofert now be selling its biogas business after this afternoon’s defeat in parliament?



I have to! But I don't want to!

Andrej Babis suffered an humiliating setback in parliament this afternoon. His proposal to reintroduce state subsidies for new biogas installations was rejected in committee.

Only ANO MPs voted for the measure, and even they were very unhappy about it. One of them even said “We have to!” to which the others replied, “But you don’t want to!” (ale moc se vám nechce) and all burst out laughing at the bursting of Babis’s biogas bubble.

The proposal formally belongs to Agrofert’s Jaroslav Faltynek, but he was busy (Agrofert is a big business after all!), so the Microsoft millionaire Ivan Pilny, who is also an ANO MP, had to make a fool of himself on Babis's behalf instead. And he does not even work for Agrofart!

Like flatulence, the embarrassment of ANO MPs is only natural. It must be degrading for a self-made man of Pilny's stature to have to lobby for a measure that is so obviously beneficial for Babis’s bottom line. Pilny’s new political boss owns eight biogas installations. In 2012, Babis bought Farmtec, which builds biogas installations. He must be regretting it today.

Between 2012-2013, Farmtec built 70 biogas installations. But the end of subsidies for new biogas installations makes Babis’s acquisition look ill-timed. In 2013, Farmtec’s income plunged by Kc 600 million to Kc 1.2 billion. And thanks to the disappearance of subsidies, Farmtec has failed to secure a single order so far this year.