ELECTRICITY - ČEZ Prodej, a subsidiary of electricity giant ČEZ, has won a tender to sell 1.6 billion Kč in electricity to railway operator České dráhy, Euro reported Feb. 13. ČEZ's two rivals in the bid said there was little doubt ČEZ would win because its size enables it to undercut competitors on price.

DIGITAL - Parliament passed a bill Feb. 10 to regulate digital television. According to the bill, 12 licenses will be issued with no guarantee of extension. TV Nova and Prima TV will each receive two licenses to avoid potential lawsuits and encourage them to switch to digital broadcasting in 2009.

MERGER - Bakeries International Luxembourg (BIL), the owner of Czech bakery Odkolek, has asked the Anti-Monopoly Office (ÚOHS) for permission to merge with United Bakeries Luxembourg, which owns the Czech company Delta pekárny, Euro reported Feb. 13. The BIL asked for permission to merge directly with Delta pekárny last year, but the ÚOHS turned it down.

CARTEL - The ÚOHS ruled Feb. 6 that the country's three largest sugar producers — Moravskoslezské cukrovary, Cukrovary TTD and Eastern Sugar ČR — will not be fined 118 million Kč for alleged price fixing and cartel formation, the Czech Business Weekly reported in its Feb. 6 issue. While the ÚOHS did find evidence of illegal information exchange between the companies, the agency missed the deadline for handing down the fine, according to the report.

LOANS - Small and midsize companies will have access to approximately 1.9 billion Kč in loans from Českomoravská záruční a rozvojová banka, a development bank, this year. The figure is 1 billion Kč less than the bank allocated in 2005, CEO Ladislav Mačka said at a Feb. 9 press conference.

INVESTMENT - Foreign direct investment (FDI) reached a record 261 billion Kč in 2005, up from 146.2 billion Kč in 2004, according to data released by the Czech National Bank Feb. 13. Last year's figure is slightly deceiving as several large privatizations, most notably Český Telecom, added tens of billions of crowns to the FDI balance.