Partners founders inject $151M into their bank as loan book doubles past CZK 12bn
What's the deal? Partners founders Petr Borkovec and Radim Lukeš are putting 3.27 billion CZK (≈$151 million) into Partners BankaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to fund rapid lending growth. The capital increase, approved by the general meeting on November 2, is financed entirely by the Partners group itself, mainly from dividends. New shares will be subscribed by Partners BankIn 2 as the lead investor, alongside Partners BankIn and Lukeš's firm Apana.
Why now? The bank's loan book has more than doubled this year, from above CZK 5 billion in January to over CZK 12 billion today. That growth outpaced its capital: capital adequacy fell from 182.8% to 48.9% over the past year as risk-weighted assets more than tripled.
What's the endgame? Borkovec wants to lend roughly CZK 1 billion a month and has launched property loans, which tie up more capital. "We need capital primarily for loan expansion," he told CzechCrunch (translated from Czech). The injection is meant to cover two and a half years of needs, paid in gradually, and to fund planned expansion abroad.
By the numbers: The bank reported a CZK 300 million loss for 2025, its first full year developing a loan portfolio. Borkovec says it is performing better than planned and expects to break even next year.
What could go wrong? The key test is whether fast loan growth turns profitable. Partners Banka's scale remains modest beside incumbents — Komerční bankaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → reported CZK 964.6 billion in customer lending in the first nine months of 2026, up 11.1% year on year.
The signal: The injection reads as founder backing for a young bank's expansion, not a distressed rescue. It lets Partners build a lending business alongside its established financial-advice network, in a Czech market where corporate credit demand is rising even as the central bank has lifted its key rate to 4%.
Read more: cc.cz
Image credit: Office of Governor Dan Malloy