Matt Atlas

PPF Boosts MONETA Stake To 28.36%

PPF Group will increase its stake in Moneta Money Bank to 28.36% shares after the repurchase settlement. PPF’s Tanemo will acquire a 27.73% stake. The price for the purchased shares would reach 11.3 billion crowns.

The settlement will be governed by the terms of the public share repurchase proposal published on 8 February. Legal entities sent most acceptances. Natural persons delivered seven percent. Foreign shareholders account for a larger share of the entire buyout, almost 87 percent. In a voluntary share repurchase offer, Tanemo offered CZK 80 per Moneta share.

The settlement will be in two waves. The first part of the 10% stake will be settled on 24 March. The second part of the repurchase will be settled after obtaining approval from the Czech National Bank, which PPF requested 24 February this year.

At the beginning of February, Moneta’s Board of Directors unanimously concluded that PPF’s voluntary public proposal to purchase part of Moneta’s shares from its shareholders up to 20 percent, with the possibility of increasing to 29 percent, is in line with the interests of the bank and its shareholders. The realization of a possible merger with Air Bank, the Czech and Slovak Home Credit, and the company Benxy (Zonky brand) depends on the shareholders’ in-depth inspection and approval.

Moneta received a proposal from the PPF group of billionaire Petr Kellner on 22 January this year. The merger of Moneta and Air Bank may create the third-largest bank on the Czech market after Česká spořitelna and ČSOB, depending on the number of clients. The shareholders will decide on the offer at the General Meeting.

PPF Group invests in many industries, from financial services, telecommunications, real estate, engineering to biotechnology. At the end of the first half of the year, PPF owned assets worth 44 billion euros (approximately 1.15 trillion crowns) and employed 98,000 people worldwide.

Moneta Money Bank has been operating under its current name since 2016. At that time, the bank’s name was changed from the former GE Money Bank to its listing on the stock exchange in May of the same year. Moneta is one of the largest companies traded on the Prague Stock Exchange.