Company press releasespage 31 of 34

The Industrial Palace at the Výstaviště exhibition grounds reopens after the 2008 fire and four and a half years of reconstruction. One-hour guided tours by Prague City Tourism for up to 30 people cost a symbolic 91 crowns, after the year the palace was built; the first batch is sold out, and new dates on 29 and 30 September and 1 and 2 October have been on sale since 15 September. The first event in the restored central hall will be the DesignBlok Talks conference on 6 and 7 October, and during the DesignBlok festival from 7 to 11 October ticket holders can also go inside. From 24 September a free exhibition in front of the palace presents the crafts that restored it.

The average offered mortgage rate rose by 0.62 percentage points from its March low to 5.51 per cent in September, according to the Swiss Life Hypoindex. The estate agency Philip & Frank argues that postponing a purchase may not pay: in its model an 8 million crown flat gets 8 per cent dearer within a year, and even with a rate half a point lower the monthly payment would rise from about 36,300 to 37,100 crowns. New flats in Prague rose in price by about 11 per cent year on year in the second quarter, to 183,100 crowns per square metre, according to Flat Zone data.

The firm ComSource counted 17 documented ransomware threats in Czechia in August across healthcare, manufacturing, IT services, public administration, education and retail. It rates as most serious a leak from an unnamed healthcare provider recorded on 27 August: patient contacts and medical records, payment and insurance details and staff profiles were offered by the DataBastard group for 1,400 dollars. The most active group was Titan, with four attacks on data and IT service firms, and there was also a claim of 105,000 records leaked from an online shop.

On 11 September the Chamber of Deputies passed, in third reading, an amendment to the Consumer Credit Act with a new price cap; amendment F3, which would have softened the cap, failed. The Association of Non-Bank Loan Providers estimates that at least 90,000 people who can repay their loans will be pushed out of the regulated market, and that some will end up at pawnshops and loan sharks. It welcomes new creditworthiness rules as a partial improvement, but they do not apply to loans repayable within a year.

The Czech Energy Association and the Chamber of Commerce have launched modulreaktor.cz, a portal listing Rolls-Royce SMR tenders for supplies to its small modular reactors; ten have been published so far. The contracts cover not only projects in Czechia but the whole fleet planned in Britain and Europe, and Rolls-Royce SMR is to choose its main suppliers by the end of 2027. Firms must register directly with Rolls-Royce SMR, the associations check their basic eligibility and ČEZ passes the information on; Rolls-Royce SMR makes the choice.

From 7 September the Lidl chain has permanently lowered the regular prices of more than 130 laundry, cleaning and dishwashing products, both its own brands and other makers'. According to the release Maxi Trat washing powder fell from 179.90 to 119.90 crowns, Coccolino fabric softener now costs 89.90 crowns and Jar washing-up liquid 69.50. It extends the Ceny v klidu pricing strategy that Lidl introduced in February for food, drinks and pet food.

The city-owned company Pražské služby took delivery of 18 electric Toyota Proace City vans with 50 kWh batteries from the leasing firm Drivalia in August. The public contract allows for up to 39 vehicles, and an order for ten more is under way. The vans are on a 48-month operating lease and are to be used mainly in the city centre.

On Wednesday the Chamber of Deputies overrode the Senate's rejection and passed the amendment to the Building Act together with a package of related changes, 55 laws in all, including nature protection and heritage conservation. The Senate had voted the bill down; according to Pirate MP and architect Veronika Kovářová, 56 senators warned against it. Environmental groups have called on the president to veto it.

Building work has begun on the site of the former Koh-i-noor factory in Vršovice. On just under two hectares the developer PSN plans roughly 600 units in new buildings and restored historic ones, plus about 30 commercial spaces. The first phase offers 125 units in the renovated building on Vršovická and just under 220 in the new building next door, mostly studios and one-bedroom flats; about a quarter are to be larger family flats. The listed former machine-shop and finishing buildings will be restored, and PSN will extend the factory chimney back to its original height with a steel structure. The design is by Jakub Cigler Architekti, with a pedestrian route through the middle of the site to Moskevská street. Production ran here for 120 years, from 1902 under the Waldes name and later as Koh-i-noor; PSN bought the site in 2018.

The BILLA chain is launching its BILLA Bio private label, until now sold in Austria, on the Czech market. The first wave covers plant-based drinks, pasta, cold-pressed oils, cheeses and breakfast products; each carries the EU organic-production logo. Holders of the BILLA klub app get 20 per cent off the whole range from 2 September to 1 December.