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The biggest Czech publisher of children’s books has just agreed to acquire its nearest rival with an eye on the rights to international hits that should result from the deal.

Two Czech energy companies Energetický a Průmyslový Holding (EPH) and Czech Coal have announced they submitted binding bids for Vattenfall's German assets. But the Czech Republic's biggest electricity producer, ČEZ, said it will not make a binding bid.

The Czech Republic’s biggest carmaker Škoda Auto announced a record profit of around 19 billion crowns in 2015, a 6.5 increase from 2014. Overall sales over the same period increased by 6.2 percent from the previous year, to a total of 338 billion crowns, also a company record.

The Czech Republic’s biggest energy company ČEZ wound up what’s been a difficult 2015 with the announcement of its full year results on Tuesday. The good news is that the final net profit figure came in 700 million crowns ahead of its latest expectations at 27.7 billion crowns. The bad news is that the golden goose company now looks like its producing pretty ordinary eggs with its profits still undermined by falling electricity prices.

Details of the Czech visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping were officially announced on Monday. It’s pretty clear that the Chinese president on the first Czech official visit ever will not be coming empty handed and that a series of major business deals are in the pipeline. Some major deals already seem to have firmed up.

Electricity storage is a massive missing link in today’s energy sector, but a Chinese investor is now willing to invest hundreds of millions of crowns in a Czech battery invention which some say could overcome this major hurdle for the development of renewables and clean transport.

The growth in the Czech economy is increasingly reflected in the pay packets of the country’s workers, Hospodářské noviny reported on Thursday. The average increase is 4 percent, the newspaper said. While large employers such as Czech Rail, Unipetrol and CEZ agreed wage increases at the end of last year, more firms are now doing likewise.

An EU funding programme named Milky Way will make it easier for Czech dairy farms to export milk and milk products to Arab countries. According to a report by public broadcaster Czech Radio, dairy farms stand to receive funding of 140 million crowns.

According to the financial daily Hospodářské noviny, Czech consumers last year spent one-fifth more using payment cards. The number of venues where it is possible to shop using a credit or debit card grew by 18 percent from 2014 to almost 108,000. One factor in the increase is contactless payment, speeding up small transactions. Now, seven out of ten cards offer the service.

The Czech Republic is facing a major problem due to the fact that some environment assessments for major construction projects are up to 20 years old with most of the projects themselves still not far from the drawing board. The European Commission has been threatening to turn off the flow of billions of crowns for projects but a compromise for some now looks like it is taking shape.