RPG Industries SE

RPG Industries SE (not to be confused with RBG Capital) was established by Zdenek Bakala in 2000, after he sold his brokerage company, Patria Finance, to KBC of Belgium (qv). Four years later, Bakala bought out the recently –privatised Czech hard coal company, OKD, terming it “an opportunistic acquisition… in [a] traditional old-fashioned industr[y]” [FT 11 April 2008]. In May 2008, RPG (40% held by Bakala himself) listed its 4% owned subsidiary New World Resources NV on the London Stock Exchange. This company, based in the Netherlands is (through its control of OKD) Central Europe’s largest coking and thermal coal producer, with revenues for the year ending November 2008 of 1.55 billion euros.

Among RPG’s other companies is Green Gas International BV which claims to promote “clean energy” through coal and landfill methane “capture”. CEO of Green Gas is Chris Norval, who was pivotal in merging BHP with Billiton in 2001, to become the world’s biggest mining company.

New World Resources listing on the LSE was coordinated by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan [FT ibid].