It is aiming for an EBITDA of two billion. CE Industries’ growth will be accelerated by its own investment fund

"We invite investors to be part of Jaroslav Strnad’s success story," says Radek Feiferlík, Head of Treasury at CE Industries Group, regarding the new CE Industries & Aerospace SICAV fund for qualified investors.  In the interview, he goes on to explain how the fund will operate, how the financial flows of a diversified group spanning from Europe to the United States are managed, and how new technologies are helping in treasury.

 

In 2025, figuratively speaking, we were doing our homework. It wasn’t a year full of acquisitions, but rather one of opportunities that we sought out and analysed. I expect these to be realised in the first and second quarters of this year. We performed well in the Railways division despite the challenging situation in the rail transport market. The reason is certainly that, within the holding company, we are able to cover the entire life cycle in the freight wagon segment – from production through repairs to their disposal.

 

Our Serbian company Beohemija, which produces household cleaning products (also known in the Czech Republic as Duel – ed.), has been a major success story since its acquisition. Last year, its EBITDA reached around 6.5 million euros. We bought this company four years ago for just half a million euros, and today its fair value is between 50 and 60 million euros. The Helicopter Alliance group, another holding company of Jaroslav Strnad, which is growing at an incredible pace, has also performed extremely well. This confirms that the diversification we have as a group is a huge benefit. Moreover, we are succeeding in finding synergies across the group.

 

 

A truly pivotal project for the Opportunities division. An incredible feat was achieved – after 13 months, our people managed to revive Liberty Ostrava’s dormant production, using a tolling model (the supply of raw materials or semi-finished products to another company for processing – ed.). Of course, they encountered various pitfalls, and last year’s ramp-up curve was slower than anticipated, but everything has been set in motion and I am convinced that this year will bring very good results.