Prague, June 5 (CTK) – PPF investment group of richest Czech Petr Kellner decreased its net profit by Kc9.1bn to Kc16.5bn in 2017, which was caused by one-off factors, and its assets rose annually by 41 percent to Kc975bn, PPF told CTK today.
In 2016, PPF’s net profit was Kc25.6bn and over a third of the volume was generated by one-off operations. Excluding these factors, PPF raised its profit by 6 percent last year.
The profitability of all the key assets met the group’s expectations in areas including consumer loans, banking, telecommunications and real estate, PPF CFO Katerina Jiraskova said.
The growth in assets was contributed mainly by Asian markets of Home Credit consumer loan provider, she added.
PPF’s long successful strategy of territorial and sector diversification was supported by making new acquisitions in both e-commerce and engineering, she said.
PPF has bought an office building in Canary Wharf, London’s financial centre, the E15.cz server said today.
The group paid GBP115m (some Kc3.38bn) for the building, British real estate server CoStar wrote without referring to a source.
PPF Real Estate Holding has gained the Westferry Circus building covering 20,400 square metres in area, PPF spokeswoman Zuzana Migdalova told E15.cz confirming the information.
PPF bought the building from Hines international real estate company based in the USA. Companies agreed to not disclose details of the transaction, Migdalova said.
At the end of 2017, PPF employed 170,000 people, with companies in the Czech Republic having 9,400 employees.
PPF invests in areas including banking and financial services, telecommunications, insurance, real estate, agriculture and biotechnologies.
The group operates in Europe, Russia, Asia and the USA.