PPF N.V. is a privately held international financial and investment group residing in Netherlands and founded in 1991. The company currently focuses on consumer financing, retailing, insurance, banking and real estate trade. It's active in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Netherlands, Russia, Kazakhstan, Germany, Belarus, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, China, France, Great Britain and the USA. The founder and majority shareholder, Petr Kellner (98.92%), is also estimated to be the wealthiest person in Czech Republic, according to the Forbes magazine. The other two shareholders, Ladislav Bartoní?ek and Jean-Pascal Duvieusart, each hold a 0.54% share.
As of June the 30th of 2017, PPF Group owns assets almost 35 billion Euro.
Video PPF (company)
History
The history of PPF dates back to the early 1990s. After the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia the government led by Marián ?alfa decided to gradually privatize state-owned companies. The legal framework was set by Act No. 92/1991 enacted on 26 February 1991. One of the agreed privatization methods was voucher privatization. Czechoslovak citizens who decided to take part in the voucher privatization had two options, either bid for shares in the privatized companies by themselves or exchange in advance their vouchers for shares in privatization funds, whose managers would make the investment decisions by themselves.
In September 1991 Teplice-based company Správa prvního privatiza?ního fondu (literally Management of the First Privatization Fund) was founded, its registered capital was only CSK 0.1 million (USD 3.3 thousand). Petr Kellner became its chairman, other board members were managing director Milan Vinkler and Petr Joudal. All of them were already entrepreneurs. In February 1991 Kellner founded company ANO with Joudal and company WIKA with Vinkler.
To succeed in the privatization, PPF needed money for an advertising campaign. It obtained the capital from state-owned glassworks Sklo Union, which was also based in Teplice. ?t?pán Popovi?, board member of Sklo Union, formally introduced Kellner to the board, which in turn approved a CSK 20 million investment in the form of capital increase and debt financing. In November 1991 registered capital of PPF was increased to CSK 6.6 million (USD 226 thousand) and Joudal was replaced by Jaroslav P?erost, who was at the time CFO of Sklo Union.
In December 1991 PPF set up five investment funds:
Registered capital of each fund was CSK 0.1 million. PPF did not establish any fund focused on Slovakia.
In March 1992 registered name of the management company was shortened to První privatiza?ní fond (First Privatization Fund), a month later extraordinary general meeting elected Popovi? to its board.
Following the advertising campaign at the outset of the first wave of voucher privatization, PPF funds gathered 1.4% of all investment points and PPF became eleventh largest management company in terms of acquired privatization points. In the second wave that took place after dissolution of Czechoslovakia PPF funds gathered 2.1% of all investment points (ninth largest group).
In 1994 shareholders of the four largest funds from the first wave agreed a merger, the smallest Regional Investment Fund was later liquidated. In 1996 the merged fund acquired 20% stake in ?eská poji??ovna (?P), the largest Czech insurance company. ?P had a profitable insurance business, however its two subsidiary banks were losing billions of Czech crowns, decreasing the ownership equity of ?P.
On 17 June 1996 the first wave fund was transformed to a standard holding corporation (PPF IH). The transformation took place just two weeks before 1 July 1996, when the Act No. 142/1996 made the transition to a standard corporation much more complicated. As a result, PPF IH was not subject to regulation of investment funds anymore. To push the transformation through, PPF used cross-shareholdings. For example, industrial company TMP where PPF was the largest shareholder acquired in March 1996 shares of the fund, only to sell them for a lower price after the extraordinary general meeting losing CZK 96 million.
On 19 June 1996 the Minister of Finance Ivan Ko?árník hosted a key meeting of ?P shareholders (NPF, PPF, IPB, ?SOB and KB). National Property Fund (30% stake) was represented by Minister of Privatization Roman ?e?ka (ODA), governor of the Czech National Bank Josef To?ovský was also present. It was agreed that PPF should manage ?P and IPB its ailing subsidiary banks. PPF and IPB also got an option to purchase ?SOB shares, subject to condition that audited ?P profit for calendar year 1997 is positive. In 1998 PPF and IPB exercised the option and the state lost majority in ?P (the state was the largest shareholder of ?SOB and KB).
On 21 March 2000, Libor Procházka (IPB) agreed with Petr Kellner to sell ?P shares controlled by IPB to Dutch-based company CESPO. The contractual penalty amounted to 75% of the purchase price (CZK 1.6 billion). IPB transferred the shares too late and therefore CESPO paid only 25% of the agreed price. As a result, PPF had a majority interest in ?P. IPB went into forced administration in June 2000 and was sold to ?SOB. ?SOB later took PPF to the court, claiming the price of ?P shares was too low, however it lost the case.
In September 2000 registered capital of PPF IH was decreased by 90% and CZK 1767 million was distributed among its shareholders (CZK 500 per share, meaning CZK 15000 per voucher book).
Maps PPF (company)
Activity since the year 2000
In 2001, PPF Group N.V., registered in Netherlands and owned by Kellner, acquired a majority share in PPF Plc. Ji?í ?mejc became a shareholder in 2005, acquiring a 5% share, with Ladislav Bartoní?ek and Jean-Pascal Duvieusart being the remaining two shareholders.
PPF Group bought TV Nova, the first private TV station in the Czech Republic, in 2002. Then in 2005, after stabilizing it, the group successfuly sold it to the media group CME.
In 2008, PPF Group and italian Generali founded an insurance holding, into which they deposited their insurance assets. As of 2013, the group owned assets worth 22,113 billion Euros, including various assets from banking and insurance to real estates, energy, agriculture and the biggest russian electronics consumer chain.
Along with J&T and Daniel K?etínský, PPF Group founded EPH in 2009 (Energetický a Pr?myslový Holding - Energy and Industrial Holding), which allowed them to access the energy and industry sector.
In 2011, along with another czech billionaire Karel Komarek (KKCG), the group took control over the lottery company Sazka. Working together, both companies were able to stabilize Sazka and help it to recover. In October 2012, PPF Group move on to sell their 50% share to KKCG.
PPF Group also founded a new bank in 2011 - Air Bank, specializing in online banking. Then, towards the end of 2012, SOTIO became a member of PPF Group. SOTIO is a biotechnology company developing a new Active Cellular Immunotherapy ("ACI") for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Ji?í ?mejc sold his 5% share in PPF Group to Petr Kellner in 2013. In exchange he acquired a 13,4% share in Home Credit N.V. and Air Bank.
In November 2013, PPF Group acquired a 66% share in the company Telefónica ?R for 63,6 billion CZK. In August 2015 the general assembly authorized the divison of the company into O2 - a mobile service provider, and CETIN - telecommunications infrastructure and network company.
References
See also
- Emma Capital, an investment management company founded by PPF former shareholder Ji?í ?mejc
External links
- Official website of PPF
Source of article : Wikipedia
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