12 February 2025

Behind the Mask: Investigating EPH’s coal exit claims

Behind the Mask: Investigating EPH’s coal exit claims

This report looks at the relationship between the sister companies EPH and EP Energy Transition (EPETr), both of which are owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský. EPH was established in 2009 and has since become a key player in the European energy market, with holdings across Europe. This report is based on an investigation carried out by researchers at FIND and commissioned by Beyond Fossil Fuels and our Re-set, due to concerns over the companies’ restructuring used to mask continued investment in coal while presenting a “cleaner” energy profile to investors and policy makers. The research finds that:

• In a bid to reassure concerned financiers about its decarbonisation plans, EPH has been making promises that it is moving away from coal. The company claims it will be “almost coal free by 2025” and “fully coal-free by 2030”. Rather than closing its coal operations, since 2021 EPH’s coal assets have been in the process of being moved over to a newly created subsidiary: EP Energy Transition (EPETr). 
• EPH and EPETr are presented as two very distinct entities. This separation reduces EPH’s exposure to coal, with that exposure due to decrease even further over time as the company actively pursues its energy transition. 
• Our investigation suggests that this separation is largely superficial, and seemingly designed to greenwash EPH’s continued involvement in coal and fossil fuel exploitation.