Plzen, West Bohemia/Prague, Nov 26 (CTK) – PPF, the investment group of the richest Czech Petr Kellner, signed a contract for the purchase of 100 percent at engineering group Skoda Transportation, the groups’ spokespersons told CTK at the weekend.
The following are brief profiles of the two groups:
Skoda Transportation:
– It is the biggest group in Central and Eastern Europe involved in transport engineering. Product portfolio comprises: trams, electric commuter trains, locomotives, metro trains, trolleybuses and electric buses.
– In 2016, Skoda Transportation produced 87 modern low-floor trams that were shipped to Helsinki and Bratislava and that also operate in Prague. The group produced more than 10 two-storied carriages for Finnish railways, metro trains for Saint Petersburg and locomotives for Deutsche Bahn.
– The group consists of Czech units Skoda Transportation, Skoda Electric and Movo, Skoda Vagonka, Pars Nova Sumperk and Poll, Hungary’s Ganz-Skoda, Sibelektroprivod in Novosibirsk, Skoda Transportation Deutschland and Finnish rail vehicle manufacturer TransTech.
– Staff numbers reached 5,327 last year. Annual R&D investments reach some Kc1bn, with Kc1.032bn invested in this area last year.
– Skoda Transportation is controlled by nine natural persons via 15 companies, server Hlidacipes.org has reported. Cyprus-based company CEIL has been its owner so far.
– The company was entered in the Register of Companies as Skoda Dopravni technika on March 1, 1995. It was rebranded as Skoda Transportation in December 2004. Skoda Holding became its owner in 2010. The company was taken over by Skoda Industry, based in Cyprus, a year later, which changed its name to CEIL in 2013.
– The group saw an annual 14 percent drop in sales to Kc15.7bn last year, while nearly trebling its net profit to Kc1.571bn. According to server iHNED.cz, Skoda Transportation has paid out Kc19.7bn in dividends to its owners since 2011, a higher amount than the net profit figure for the period.
PPF:
– It is an investment group operating in many areas including banking and financial services, telecommunications, biotechnologies, insurance, real estate and agriculture. It has been active in Europe, Russia, Asia and North America.
– PPF’s portfolio comprises: Home Credit, PPF banka, Air Bank (all involved in banking), Cetin, O2 (telecommunications), PPF Real Estate Holding (property), Sotio (biotechnology), PPF Life Insurance (insurance), Polymetal International (gold and silver mining), Eldorado (retail), RAV Agro (agriculture), PPF, a.s (consulting services for the entire group as well as its units), PPF Art (culture and art), Bestsport (owner of Prague’s O2 multipurpose arena) and other companies.
– PPF controlled Ceska pojistovna insurer in the past, and later it made the insurer part of joint venture set up with Italian insurer Generali which bought PPF’s stake in Generali PPF Holding in the end. PPF also controlled Czech private TV Nova and had a share in energy group Energeticky a prumyslovy holding (EPH) and lottery company Sazka.
– PPF was established in September 1991 as Sprava PPF (Sprava prvniho privatizacniho fondu first privatisation fund administrator) and created four funds for the first wave of voucher privatisation (method where citizens were given or could inexpensively buy a book of vouchers that represented potential shares in any state-owned company). Its co-founders were entrepreneurs Petr Kellner and Milan Vinkler (who later left the company) and Sklo Union Teplice company. After success in both rounds of voucher privatisation, Sprava PPF was transformed into a joint-stock company, PPF investicni holding, in March 1996.
– PPF Group N. V., based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is a leading company in the group.
– PPF Group N. V. is majority owned by Petr Kellner.
– PPF employs 155,000 people all over the world, nearly 9,000 of them are Czech employees.
– PPF raised its net profit by 18 percent to Kc7.5bn (EUR283m) in the Jan-June period. Total assets were 29 percent higher annually at Kc890bn (EUR34.8bn).
– PPF said recently it would issue bonds worth some EUR150m (Kc3.8bn) on the Czech market in December to finance expansion of its companies.