AN ISLAND BREEZE BLOWS IN PRAGUE

THE TEXT
AN ISLAND BREEZE BLOWS IN PRAGUE
An exiled fund prodigy and his brash Wall Street mentor promised to teach Czech industry Western
management methods. Instead, investors learned a painful lesson about the perils of emerging
markets. So are Kozeny and Dingman guilty or is everyone else a gullible sucker?
The next time you consider sailing your small
transform a rusty bucket of Czech industrial
investor boat into the tempting but turbulent
companies--all without ever leaving his tropical
waters of an emerging market, keep the
base. Though some in Prague greeted this raid
following exchange in mind: When FORTUNE
by Caribbean buccaneers with skepticism, much
asked swashbuckling financier Michael D.
of the foreign press hailed Dingman--who
Dingman--a fellow who says he considers
claimed he was pouring $140 million of his own
pirates merely misunderstood entrepreneurs--
money into the investments--as a hero, a man
whether he traded on inside knowledge during
who would teach the locals much needed
his recent business adventures in the Czech
lessons in free-market capitalism and Western
Republic, he cheerfully replied, "That's probably
management skills. "An island breeze blows in
true." Other investors, he went on to volunteer,
Prague" was Business Week's headline, while
"are saying, 'We can't get enough information,
London's Financial Times called him a "breath of
so we're going to sell, we're going to go home
fresh air."
to bitch and complain.' That's the kind of meat I
like to eat."
VOCABULARY
Remember Dingman? He was the Al Dunlap of
the 1980s, a swaggering, make-no-apologies,
take-no-prisoners turnaround artist who dazzled
Wall Street by rescuing a series of companies
like Wheelabrator and Signal. A daredevil whose
hobby was high-speed auto racing, Dingman
later led a then-record $1.2 billion IPO of
AlliedSignal's castoffs into the Henley Group, a
feat that ultimately made him a multimillionaire
but also left a trail of angry shareholders who
claim he enriched himself at their expense.
Last fall Dingman, who a few years ago gave up
his U.S. citizenship for a passport from the taxfree Bahamas, resurfaced in investing's Wild
East. Allied with a controversial young Czech
prodigy -- zázračné dítě, génius
brash -- drzý, neomalený
peril -- nebezpečí, riziko
swashbuckling -- dobrodružný (ve stylu
pirátů)
volunteer -- říci sám od sebe, bez vyzvání
bitch -- stěžovat si
Al Dunlap -- ???
swaggering -- naparující se
dazzle -- oslnit
daredevil -- opovážlivec
castoffs -- odložené věci
feat -- husarský kousek
leave a trail of... -- nechat za sebou
spoustu...
resurface -- znovu se vynořit
allied with -- ve spojení s
a fellow exile -- další (stejně tak) exulant
bold scheme -- odvážný plán
take over -- převzít velení
a rusty bucket -- zrezivělý kbelík
raid -- nájezd (přepadení)
hail sb -- oslavovat někoho
investor (and fellow exile), Viktor Kozeny, he
announced a bold scheme to take over and
CNBW READING ROOM / SMALL BLACK BEETLES / TOO LONG TO FAIL
PIRATES OF PRAGUE - 1 - AN ISLAND BREEZE BLOWS IN PRAGUE