ČEZ's hitherto head of asset management, Pavel Cyrani, will become the new head of its strategy division, created to help the state-controlled power giant steer its way through ever greater uncertainty in the European and global power sector. The new division will help back up the blue sky piloting previously performed by trading director Alan Svoboda.

Mirek Topolánek, who stepped down as Czech prime minister in May 2009, may have finally landed a prominent job: The ex-Civic Democratic Party (ODS) leader looks set to head the Association for District Heating (ADH ČR). It’s a sexier post than it sounds. Among the group’s 87 members are the biggest names in the Czech energy sector — in which Topolánek has positioned himself as an expert and advisor.

Following the publication of ČEZ’s results for Q2, 2011, by the Reuters news agency and later Bloomberg, the state-controlled power company published its provisional results later on Monday, after having announced the results would be published on Tuesday morning before the opening of the markets. The company posted a net profit of Kč 6.74 billion, down 39.5 percent on Kč 11.19 billion in Q2, 2011, and well short of the Kč 8.53 billion expected by the market.

The Prague Stock Exchange’s PX Index dropped 6 percent on Monday closing at 1027 points — its lowest level in two years on a day which saw record loses for several titles traded on the exchange. Trading volume reached Kč 3.2 billion compared to the average over the past year of Kč 1.3 billion.