Home Credit International, a.s.

Air Bank

<h3><a href="https://www.ppf.eu/en/air-bank-group" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Air Bank Group &raquo;</a></h3>

Air Bank routinely introduces novel services and solutions to the Czech market, where it&nbsp;leads the way in customer centricity. This approach has seen it continue to attract new clients, increase its volume of lending, and record growing income from regular retail banking services. At the end of 2021, Air Bank had more than 986,000 clients served by 955 employees at 32 branches distributed among the Czech Republic&rsquo;s largest towns and cities. In recent years, its customer experience has been ranked first and second out of two hundred regularly assessed brands that are present in the Czech market.

It was the first domestic bank to launch instant payments. It was also among the first to make the popular Apple Pay service available in the Czech Republic, subsequently going on to add Google Pay, Garmin Pay, and Fitbit Pay. It launched multi-banking and linked this system with all other major banks (from which many clients make their way to Air Bank).&nbsp;
In 2021, Air Bank deployed the first banking app that could be voice-controlled in Czech, a feat earning it Novelty of the Year award in the financial sector. Air Bank was one of the first banks in the Czech Republic to offer banking identity, or BankID, as a means of facilitating communication with the public and commercial sector. Air Bank clients can now make returns on their savings by investing via the Portu service or in other clients&rsquo; loans via the Zonky Renti&eacute;r service. Looking to the future, Air Bank will focus on areas such as services for families and the expansion of its mortgage and investment services.
Air Bank&rsquo;s mobile banking enjoys high levels of popularity among customers. In the third quarter of 2021, it was used by over 670,000 users, almost a quarter of whom made daily use of the app. The&nbsp;scale of Air Bank&rsquo;s digitalisation is also phenomenal in terms of clients opening new accounts (75% online), applying for loans (88% online), or taking out travel insurance (91% online).

<table>
 <thead>
 <tr>
 <td scope="col">Air Bank's Values</td>
 </tr>
 </thead>
 <tbody>
 <tr>
 <td>Simplicity</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Truthfulness</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Courage</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>Friendliness</td>
 </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>

In 2021, the bank committed to environmentally and socially responsible business by subscribing to the Czech Banking Association&rsquo;s Memorandum on Sustainable Finance. Both Air Bank and Zonky are regularly named among the most responsible consumer lenders in the People in Need Responsible Lending Index.
PPF Group holds 91.12% in Air Bank through PPF Financial Holdings a.s. and Home Credit B.V.

<h2>Zonky</h2>
Zonky, operated by Benxy (a subsidiary of Air Bank), is a P2P fintech platform. Zonky offers to lend money via a simple digital platform and application. Using a computer or smartphone, customers can handle the whole borrowing process from submitting an application to signing a contract within minutes. Zonky typically charges lower interest than traditional lenders.
Zonky also offers services for all types of investors, both experienced and newcomers based on sharing economy principles. At Zonky, clients themselves can make money by acting as a &ldquo;bank&rdquo; and investing into loans without an institutional intermediary, either through our in-house portfolio management or through a Zonky Renti&eacute;r.
Zonky, the P2P lending platform, formally became part of Air Bank in December 2021, but continues to offer its services under its own brand.

Czech Republic

This next-generation retail and hyper-digital bank was founded 10 years ago to compete with conventional banks by offering straightforward, customer-centric, and innovative services. Air Bank is the fastest growing and expanding neo-bank in the&nbsp;Czech&nbsp;Republic. Few banks of&nbsp;this kind in&nbsp;the&nbsp;world can match its size and&nbsp;profitability.

Air Bank regularly wins awards from industry professionals and the general public. In industry competitions, Air Bank is noted as a top bank for the services it offers and chiefly for how friendly it is to customers.
Půjčka od Air Bank (Air Bank Loan) has been rated time and again as the fairest loan product in the Responsible Lending Index compiled by People in Need. The bank also consistently takes the top spot in delivering the best customer experience among companies active anywhere in the Czech Republic.

Multiple Awards

“We are keen to remain a friendly bank that can help people understand their money in as many areas as possible with simple and friendly services.”

Air Bank's Growth

Temsa Adana

Temsa Istanbul

Founded in 1968, the company has mainly focused on making buses and coaches since 1987. It has subsidiaries in France, Germany, and the US that support sales and provide after-sales services.

The&nbsp;main plant in Adana has an annual production capacity of 10,000 vehicles. The company is a major local employer with a workforce of more than 1,300&nbsp;staff. In 2021 TEMSA reported total revenues of EUR&nbsp;163.5 millions.
Synergies between TEMSA and &Scaron;koda Group companies play a major role in plans for further growth and expansion into international markets, including Western Europe, through jointly developed smart mobility solutions. TEMSA runs Turkey&rsquo;s first research and development centre for buses. One of&nbsp;this facility&rsquo;s projects is the development of the promising MD9 electriCITY electric bus.
PPF Group and Sabanci Holding each hold a 50% stake in the company.

Turkey

Temsa develops and makes a wide range of transportation products, including municipal and intercity buses, tourist coaches, commercial vehicles, and propulsion systems including modern electric units.

TEMSA

Tanemo a.s.

Important Documents

Press Releases

On 8 February 2021, Tanemo a.s. published a tender offer to purchase part of the shares in MONETA Money Bank, a.s. In accordance with Tanemo a.s.&rsquo;s obligations, this page contains links to the relevant documents for those interested in selling their shares in MONETA Money Bank, a.s.
<h4>&nbsp;</h4>
<h4>Contact Telephone Line 9AM to 6PM</h4>
+420 222 244 255 <a href="mailto:info@tanemo.eu">info@tanemo.eu</a>

Air Bank Group increased profits 25% year-on-year to CZK 877 million amid a record issuance of new volume in several categories 

Why is it no longer possible to withdraw the acceptance of the Voluntary Public Proposal

Notice of Increase of the Maximum Bid Volume 

Announcement on Intention to Extend Acceptance Period by 5. March 2021 

Voluntary Public Offer to purchase part of the shares issued by MONETA Money Bank, a.s. 

Position of the Management Board of MONETA Money Bank, a.s.

FAQ on the PPF offer to MONETA Money Bank’s shareholders

In the countries where it does business, PPF Group always provides assistance in response to events that hit the entire country hard and require rapid action. 

Nadace PPF

PPF Group

PPF a.s.

PPF’s Media Subsidiary CME Agrees on Financing Extension

PPF GATE

PPF Group returns to pre-Covid levels of profitability

Chief of Public and Government Affairs Vladimír Mlynář to leave PPF

Home Credit Group closes Indonesia business sale

PPF Telecom Group

PPF Telecom Group: 2022 sustainability report

Renáta Kellnerová and her family become PPF Group’s 100% owners

Under the Terms of Use of these websites, it is forbidden to use the photographs contained in the Annual Reports posted on the aforementioned websites for any purposes other than for exclusively personal and non-commercial use, to copy, reproduce, edit, modify, rearrange or otherwise tamper with the photographs contained in the Annual Reports, or to disseminate any such photographs treated in this way. You may display the content of the Annual Reports, including photographs, on a&nbsp;computer, tablet, or mobile telephone screen, print individual pages on paper (but not photocopy them), and store such pages in electronic form on a&nbsp;disk or on your mobile telephone (but not on any server or other networked storage device) for your personal, non-commercial use only.

Annual Reports Agreement

PPF a.s., with its registered office in Prague 6, Evropsk&aacute; 2690/17, postal code 16041, Czech Republic, entered in the Commercial Register kept by the Municipal Court in Prague, Section B, Insert 4495, IČ: 25099345 (hereinafter referred to as the &ldquo;PPF Company&rdquo;), offers download on the website <a href="//www.ppf.eu">www.ppf.eu</a> (hereinafter referred to as the "website") official photos that are intended for download by PPF (such photos hereinafter referred to as "Photos").
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If you are interested in downloading and using some of the Photos, you must always accept the license agreements listed below. It is expressly stated that you acknowledge that you are not authorized to download and use any Photograph without accepting these license agreements.
License Agreement
The photo is provided for download and use under the conditions set forth in these license agreements. PPF grants you the right to download and use the Photo only if you unconditionally accept the license agreement set forth in this section. Unless otherwise agreed between you and PPF, any use of the Photograph that is not in accordance with these license agreements is prohibited.
By accepting these license agreements, you acquire a free, non-exclusive, non-transferable, territorially and time-limited license to download and view the Photos on your computer, tablet or mobile phone and print them on paper (but not to make copies). Unless otherwise stated or agreed below, you are entitled to use the Photos only for your own personal purposes.
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You further exclude and by accepting these license agreements you agree not to:
<ul>
 <li>Use the photographs in such a way that the persons depicted can give the public the impression that they support or promote political, religious, economic or other ideological movements, parties and other groups or political, religious, economic or other currents of thought (including and their display on promotional materials, including billboards);</li>
 <li>Use and edit photographs in such a way that the persons shown on them may give the public the impression that they are promoting erotic or sexual services, sexual health products or the promotion of sexual desire and libido;</li>
 <li>Use and edit the photographs so that the persons depicted on them may give the public the impression that the persons depicted on them promote drugs, alcohol (of any kind) and / or cigarettes;</li>
 <li>Use photographs for advertising purposes of any kind;</li>
 <li>Use photographs for the purpose of publication on billboards;</li>
 <li>Take photos by placing them on gift items;</li>
 <li>Use photographs as part of business communications;</li>
 <li>Use the photographs in such a way that the persons depicted on them may give the public the impression that those persons purchase, use or promote any goods or services;</li>
 <li>Use the Photographs in a manner that may give rise to reasonable doubt that such use could infringe or otherwise disparage the personal rights of the persons depicted in the Photographs.</li>
</ul>
If you have any doubts as to whether you are entitled to use the Photograph, taking into account the restriction mentioned above under the last indent, you undertake to seek the opinion of PPF before using the Photograph itself.
If you are interested in using the Photograph in a manner or to the extent beyond the scope of these license agreements, please contact PPF, specifically contact PPF at the e-mail address <a href="mailto:images@ppf.cz">images@ppf.cz</a>. In the e-mail message, state which Photo, for what purpose, to what extent, in what way and for how long you are interested in using it. With regard to the purpose, scope and manner of use of the Photograph that you specify in your application, it will be at PPF's sole discretion whether your application will be approved or rejected and you will be able to use the Photograph. In order to obtain consent to the use of the Photograph, you are obliged to provide only true and complete data in the application. If your application is approved, you will be able to download the requested Photo and use it for the purpose, manner and to the extent specified in the application. However, PPF reserves the right to set the conditions for the scope and method of use Photography.
By downloading the Photo, you do not become its owner in any way. The User who has been allowed to download the Photo undertakes to use the Photo only in accordance with the purpose and to the extent to which the Photo has been allowed to download and use, and only once.
For the media
Notwithstanding the above license agreements, media representatives are entitled, based on the acceptance of these license agreements, to use the Photographs under a news license and in an editorial sense, ie primarily as part of an article in newspapers, magazines and newspaper and magazine websites, including for commercial purposes. In the cases described in this paragraph, you may modify the Photo only by common technical interventions that do not change the image content of the Photo, which means cropping the Photo, and common color adjustments that do not change the meaning or image meaning of the Photo. With the exception of the above, the restrictions on the use of the Photograph resulting from the license agreements also apply to media representatives and the media itself.
General provisions
In the event that you request to combine the Photograph with the author's work (literary or artistic), you are obliged to ask PPF for consent to combine the Photograph with the author's work by sending a request to the e-mail address images@ppf.cz. PPF reserves the right, prior to the actual issuance of the consent, to request from you the submission of such copyright work for approval and as a basis for the decision to issue such consent. PPF also reserves the right not to issue a consent to the merger of the Photograph and the author's work after the assessment of the author's work. PPF also reserves the right to request the submission of a graphic design of each material on which the Photograph is to be displayed.
If you wish to use the Photograph on behalf of your employer, you represent and agree that you are authorized to accept these license agreements on behalf of your employer.
Only PPF is entitled to change or supplement these license agreements. The legal relations that arose between PPF and the user of Fotografie before the change or cancellation of these license agreements are governed by the wording effective as of the date of these relations.
These license agreements are governed by the applicable laws of the Czech Republic. All disputes arising in connection with the use of the Photograph will be heard by a locally competent court in the Czech Republic in accordance with the laws of the Czech Republic.
These license agreements are valid and effective on the date of their publication. These license agreements were published on 17/6/2021.
These license agreements are also prepared in English and Czech. In the event of a conflict between the Czech and English texts of the license agreements, the Czech text of the license agreements shall apply.

Terms of use of website content

PPF is too big a ship to turn around in just a few minutes, says Jan Růžička

In Bucharest, where this interview took place, PPF Real Estate owns two office buildings in the city center, Metropolis Center and Crystal Tower. Next year, the company plans to start constructing the EUR 60 million ARC project, which will provide 30,000 sqm of modern office space. PPF also owns PRO TV, a leading television broadcaster in Romania, via its media division CME.
&nbsp;
How much of a role Russia&rsquo;s aggression in Ukraine played in PPF&rsquo;s exit from Russia and instead strengthened its activities in Southeastern Europe?
&nbsp;
PPF operates in 24 countries on three continents: Europe, Asia and America. When something unprecedented - like last February in Ukraine - happens, moral principles take precedence, and business goes by the wayside. The shareholders decided that PPF would leave Russia, and in May 2022, we sold Home Credit &amp; Finance Bank, our largest asset in that country, and we started selling our real estate. Most divestment transactions were completed last August. The whole situation tested not only business strategies but also the characters of our decision-makers. We did what had to be done. And as a result, our business in Southeastern Europe, which we already had before the war, became all the more important. PPF is active regionally in telecommunications, media and e-commerce. Events in Russia and the whole Eurasian continent have shifted the focus to Southeastern Europe, which is even more in our sights now.&nbsp;
&nbsp;
In Kazakhstan, the situation became more complicated last January after dramatic protests following a sudden, steep increase in gas prices, but the company stayed there. 
That&rsquo;s when the country&rsquo;s telephone networks were cut, and there was no way to reach Kazakhstan from Prague. The paradox was that it was possible from Hong Kong. I was living there at the time, and there were curious moments when I would read news describing the situation in Kazakhstan to my colleagues stranded in Almaty. Fortunately, the riots didn&rsquo;t last long.
We have a positive view of Kazakhstan, not only us as a company but also other businesspeople globally, and the international community. The country is in a complicated geographic location, sandwiched between Russia and China, but it is trying and making reforms, for example in digitalization of the government, called e-government. In that, Kazakhstan is already ahead of us. On the Kazakhstan market, we operate Home Credit, which is a standard retail bank comparable to Air Bank in the Czech Republic. We are also active there through Skoda Group, as we are with neighboring Uzbekistan, where we have largest contract between the Czech Republic and the Central Asian region for the delivery of rolling stock worth 320 million euros.
PPF has also been active in China, providing consumer loans under the Home Credit brand since 2007. What was the main reason to withdraw from this market? 
While our exit from Russia was a cut and dried, withdrawal from the Chinese market has been a gradual winding down of activity. It was a natural reaction to the Chinese overregulation in many areas of the economy. This has been happening there for several years, and it&rsquo;s not just PPF that has felt its effects, it&rsquo;s also other Czech and foreign companies. The market conditions in China are simply not the same for all players. And when we can choose, we do. We began retreating from China before Covid, in fact.
PPF&rsquo;s performance 
In the first half of 2023, PPF generated a net profit of EUR 709 million. Companies across the Group thrived, and the Group as a whole had already absorbed most of the costs associated with exiting Russia last year.
In October this year, PPF completed the sale of Home Credit in Indonesia. It followed a transaction in the Philippines, settled in June. The assets were bought by a consortium led by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG).
How would you characterize PPF&rsquo;s presence in Southeast Europe? 
One could say it&rsquo;s our second home. Historically, the relationship between the Czech Republic and Southeast Europe has always been first-rate. &nbsp;Naturally, we feel that for example people in Poland like the Czechs, but few people know how popular we are in Serbia, Croatia or Romania. Also, Czech people notice developments such as new motorways and hotels in Croatia, where many go on holiday. The same can be seen in Romania. The business environment throughout the region is very good, and the countries there are moving forward. When we add up all the investments, PPF is the biggest Czech investor and one of the largest from the EU. We are present here in all of PPF&rsquo;s strategic pillars&mdash;telecommunications, media, e-commerce, finance&mdash;and in Romania, also in real estate. We have almost ten thousand employees in Southeast Europe, and they&rsquo;re great.
The war in Ukraine is far from over, and there is already talk of rebuilding the country. What is your involvement in this market? 
Our Skoda Group, a PPF-owned maker of trains and streetcars, operates in Ukraine. In Dnipro, a city not far from the front line, we have a project studio where about 50 industrial designers work. The situation there isn&rsquo;t easy.&nbsp; We&rsquo;re trying to help those employees and their families in any way we can. Recently, President Pavel was there to visit and supported us in this way. Since the war broke out in Ukraine, PPF through our corporate foundation has been one of the biggest supporters of Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic. We provided more than three hundred thousand textbooks, dictionaries and teaching materials for Ukrainians to learn Czech and find their way around and integrate as best as possible into Czech society.
Are you considering investing in the media in Ukraine? 
In the countries where we operate in the media, we try to do quality production. We produce series and journalism content, which requires local connections. We are proud that Voyo, our streaming platform and online video library, operates across all our markets and in the most it is the second largest only to Netflix. This is because we invest in local talent, which of course is very difficult to do in a war zone.
Do you think the late Petr Kellner would have been happy with the state of things today and the Group&rsquo;s direction? 
PPF is too big a ship to turn around in just a few minutes. Much of what you see of PPF today was started by Petr Kellner himself, even before Covid.
Has PPF taken on any new area that is growing? 
The latest is leisure sailboat charter, which is a growing global project where we belong to the biggest players in the industry. Just as there is Uber for transportation and Airbnb for housing rentals, we are creating the same thing with small boats and yachts. PPF owns a yacht production facility in South Africa and has a charter partnership with French boat manufacturer Groupe Beneteau. We also operate marinas where yachts and catamarans are moored.
Finally, we offer a comprehensive e-commerce solution. It&rsquo;s not about luxury yachts for the elite&mdash;our customers are families who want to enjoy a boating holiday in Croatia, France or elsewhere. We also have a presence in the Caribbean. You download the app, select your boat, indicate whether you need a skipper or have your own captain&rsquo;s license, and everything is ready for you when you arrive. You get the keys to the boat right away and return it a week later. This is a new thing born from the Covid pandemic when holiday trends changed. We are trying to bring families joy in this way. It&rsquo;s a new business area for PPF, and we&rsquo;re very excited about it.
We also recently invested in InPost, a company which operates drop-off and pick-up lockers for e-shops. This investment has put us into several markets in this sector in Western Europe, including France and the UK.
&nbsp;
PPF in numbers 
Total assets &ndash; EUR 43.5 billion 
Equity &ndash; EUR 10 billion 
Number of employees worldwide &ndash; 52,000
&nbsp;
source: iDnes / MF Dnes:&nbsp; author: D&aacute;&scaron;a Hyklov&aacute; https://www.idnes.cz/ekonomika/domaci/ppf-petr-kellner-jan-ruzicka.A231124_161152_ekonomika_hyk?h=B704A9A1A86E1A5CC086CB5C615A0766

Ladislav Bartoníček – Interview for Hospodářské noviny Czech business daily

PPF Gate

PPF a.s. is the principal consulting company within PPF Group.

In the corner is a tin sculpture by Věra Janou&scaron;kov&aacute;. On the wall is an oil painting by Vladim&iacute;r Nov&aacute;k. A wardrobe displays a fanciful bust by Jaroslav R&oacute;na. Ladislav Barton&iacute;ček&rsquo;s office on the fifth floor at PPF headquarters in Dejvice is full of modern art. The former co-owner of the Czech Republic&rsquo;s largest financial group takes care that nothing disturbs the impression of design purity. There are no papers, folders or books on his desk, just a computer. &ldquo;This is how I like it. Everything I need is on my computer,&rdquo; says the fifty-nine-year-old manager, one of Petr Kellner&rsquo;s closest associates for thirty years.
Barton&iacute;ček&rsquo;s role at PPF has been turbulently transformed since Kellner&rsquo;s tragic death two years ago. First, he took on the role of CEO, but later, Kellner&rsquo;s widow Ren&aacute;ta Kellnerov&aacute; entrusted Jiř&iacute; &Scaron;mejc, and Barton&iacute;ček began to step down from the Group&rsquo;s executive roles. At the end of this year&rsquo;s holiday season, the company announced that Barton&iacute;ček and the other minority shareholder, Jean-Pascal Duvieusart, had been bought out of the ownership structure. Within the Group, Barton&iacute;ček retained only his position on the board of directors of the biotechnology company Sotio.
As he speaks about his new stage in life in an interview with HN, he traditionally chooses a cautious and quiet tone, making sure to get the wording right. He sips green tea and looks forward to going to the forest to pick mushroom and then wing foiling this weekend. It is a challenging, modern sport that combines riding a special board on waves and holding an inflatable wing in his hands. &ldquo;It hurts already,&rdquo; smiles Barton&iacute;ček.
How are you? 
(A moment of hesitation) I&rsquo;m fine.
How does it feel not to be a co-owner of PPF after 16 years?
Honestly, I never made that distinction, because I was in a partnership with Petr from the very beginning, since about 1991. And the discussion about consolidating the family share had been going on for a while. That said, I personally don&rsquo;t see it as any great breakthrough, because the logic was clear.
What do you mean?
Petr and I had this business partnership, and when he died, Ren&aacute;ta and I gradually concluded that it was probably right for the family to have full ownership of the Group. This doesn&rsquo;t mean a complete break with PPF, it means creating a clean solution. Historically we worked by consulting on everything, even though my share in the Group was tiny. And that couldn&rsquo;t work in the long term, of course.&nbsp;
From the outside, however, it looks like the end of years of close cooperation with PPF.
I ended up in an executive role when I handed over the CEO role to Jiř&iacute; &Scaron;mejc, and now it&rsquo;s more about consulting. I&rsquo;m not going back to an executive role, I&rsquo;m old.
&nbsp;Fifty-nine is not old age.
Maybe. Rather, it doesn&rsquo;t make sense from another perspective&mdash;for me, the most significant change happened when I handed over the executive position of Group CEO. Not that I stopped being busy, but the burden of enormous responsibility disappeared. And that, I have to say, was and is very pleasant. I&rsquo;m no longer responsible for a big whole, only my specific things, and that&rsquo;s a different story. And it should stay that way.
&nbsp;Can this be interpreted as the end of a stage that has lasted almost 33 years?
I&rsquo;m sure it is. But I mean, that would be too easy a shortcut, because it only partially relates to the sale of the share. It depends a lot more on Petr&rsquo;s death&mdash;and with my departure as CEO.
&nbsp;It&rsquo;s more of a passing period then?
That&rsquo;s a small dot.
What were the discussions around the valuation of your share like? How is it done?
We said we wouldn&rsquo;t disclose the valuation.
&nbsp;It won&rsquo;t even appear in the annual report a year from now?
I guess it depends on Kateřina Jir&aacute;skov&aacute; (CFO of PPF) and how she approaches this (laughs).
We have done the basic calculation, and your share is safely worth over a billion crowns. How come you&rsquo;ve never appeared in the billionaire charts?
I don&rsquo;t like rankings (smiles).
How did your share come to the non-rounded number of 0.535 percent?
Originally it was half a percent. The moment Jirka &Scaron;mejc sold back his five percent, he sold it to the company. So my share and J.P.&rsquo;s share increased by 35 hundredths.
&nbsp;What happens now? What are you planning after the &ldquo;small dot&rdquo; at PPF?
I have a few things in the pipeline that I&rsquo;ll be working on. Together with J.P. (Jean-Pascal Duvieusart, ed.), we have BD Partners, which is our joint business activity. We&rsquo;ve been investing in all sorts of interesting things together for a while now, so we decided it made sense to formalize it and create a structure and support for investing. We&rsquo;re interested in companies in Europe&mdash;America is far away and more complex. It&rsquo;s about companies that are already generating revenue, and they have to be interesting and innovative in some way so that we enjoy it. One of the greatest gifts of being at PPF has been that I&rsquo;ve been learning something all my life. With every new business, it&rsquo;s something new, and I&rsquo;m not going to stop.
&nbsp;Can you elaborate on what companies you&rsquo;re specifically interested in?
They should be future-proof projects, I don&rsquo;t know how to say it exactly in Czech. I mean, we&rsquo;re probably not interested in lignite mines or chemical plants, it&rsquo;s more like technology or some technology-based projects, and there&rsquo;s an interesting idea.
&nbsp;What firepower do you have at your disposal?
If we&rsquo;re talking about equity, let&rsquo;s say up to 100 million euros. For all projects.
&nbsp;Do you have anyone targeted or have you invested in anyone yet?
It has already been reported somewhere that I have invested in the start-up Advanto. I have a fairly large stake in So Concrete, which is a company that does robotic printing with UHPC, which is high-strength concrete. It&rsquo;s a company that was set up by the artist Federico D&iacute;az. It&rsquo;s a nice example of something I enjoy, because it&rsquo;s a combination of cutting-edge technology and cutting-edge know-how, not only in terms of the robots but also in terms of the materials used. Which is quite a science, but it&rsquo;s also about great creativity and high aesthetics.
You have previously invested in the computer school Gopas, which appeared in the media this year in connection with the election of the new CEO of Czech Television.
This is a long-term investment since I have known Petr Daniel, the founder and head of Gopas, from my university days. I have got a 25% stake in it. It&rsquo;s a very nice thing that makes money.
How will your life change now? Are you going to move somewhere?
I&rsquo;ll stay where I am. Prague is actually a very pleasant city to live in. Compared to the alternatives, you realize how nice Prague is. It makes sense then to have a base here. Of course, it&rsquo;s no problem to move somewhere if you want to and spend 14 days or a month somewhere else and come back again. Of course, you can work remotely, but Prague is good.
&nbsp;The only role you have left at PPF is as chairman of the board of directors at Sotio Biotech, a biotechnology company that develops drugs for cancer. What&rsquo;s behind that?
I&rsquo;ve been at Sotio for a long time, though not from the beginning&mdash;from 2013. Sotio was established at the meeting, first Petr and then both of us together, Professor Jiřina Bartůňkov&aacute; from Motol and her colleague Professor Radek &Scaron;p&iacute;&scaron;ek. They had a very interesting project based on dendritic cells. They were researching at an academic level, and the word was out that we would try to make a company out of it and develop it professionally as a possible therapy. Over time, it became clear how naive we were. We entered a field that was extremely sophisticated, extremely competitive, with enormous risks. But there are also very interesting scientific opportunities, plus it has the amazing overlap that if you can get a drug developed to the end, you can save lives. That mix appealed to me and to Petr.
What was your role?
I worked there directly as CEO for a while, but mainly to set up the corporate structure, because, of course, I don&rsquo;t understand the scientific part. So I knew it was a short-term thing. Today, Radek &Scaron;p&iacute;&scaron;ek runs Sotio, and I work on the board of directors and am kind of a &ldquo;buddy&rdquo; to him. What else can I call it?&nbsp;
Friend on the phone?
That sounds strange, but anyway, we&rsquo;re working together on strategic decisions. The day-to-day business lies with him though, and he&rsquo;s doing a great job. We&rsquo;ve been progressively developing a dendritic cell-based drug in several indications, and along the way, we&rsquo;ve found that we need to increase the likelihood that any drugs in development make it to the commercial stage. We therefore purchased additional programmes and patents, but it turned out that a dendritic cell-based drug could not be taken to the final stage, even though we were convinced it was helping patients. However, development has taken so long and is so complex that we haven&rsquo;t found a commercial model to continue with. This is a great pity, but also the reality in the pharmaceutical industry. So we stopped this programme and are continuing with the other four. All of them are in oncology, and we&rsquo;re focusing a lot on immuno-oncology.&nbsp;
Which of your programmes are closest to commercial launch? 
The most promising and perhaps most interesting is a product in a class of drugs called antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), which is a targeted therapy for treating cancer. Unlike general chemotherapy, ADCs can target and kill cancer cells but do not touch healthy ones. It uses a monoclonal antibody that can bind directly to a protein on the surface of the cancer cell. In recent years, the research and use of ADCs has seen something of a renaissance, and we&rsquo;re developing a product to treat stomach and pancreatic cancer. But it&rsquo;s important to remember that when we say closest to market, it still means another five years of work.
Do you want to keep your position at Sotio in the future?
Yes, I enjoy it immensely.
You&rsquo;ve been following the development of Czech capitalism from the front row for more than thirty years. How are we doing? 
To begin with, it&rsquo;s good to remember that we&rsquo;re a small and unimportant country, and at the end of the day, things will always work here according to whether Germany or the European Union works. The Union has been lagging far behind recently compared to what&rsquo;s happening in Asia and the US. We&rsquo;re too slow for practically everything. The big technology companies that set the trends and the future are absent in Europe. We&rsquo;re suffering from fragmentation and too much regulation from Brussels and national rules combined. It&rsquo;s actually quite a miracle that we&rsquo;re as well off as we are. The question is how long it will last. Plus, we lack motivation. When you compare the drive in emerging Asian economies with our European approach, it doesn&rsquo;t look good for us. That&rsquo;s why I am worried that unless something happens, Europe will eventually be a marginal continent. And nobody really knows what should happen.
Are we missing a clear vision then?
Yes, and not only that. We may have enough vision, but we can&rsquo;t put it into practice. For me, the blackest scenario is that Donald Trump, who doesn&rsquo;t like Europe very much, wins the US election. Our erosion compared to international competition will then be even faster.
PPF Group is moving from Asian and emerging markets back to Europe.
And to the United States. But this is a logical development resulting from the new geopolitical situation. There are still opportunities for good business in Europe. Asia is very difficult, and that means risky. So PPF is opting for a less risky strategy.
Are you sorry about how Home Credit ended? At one point, it was an empire from the US to China over which, shall we say, the sun never set. There&rsquo;s not much of that greatness left. 
I wonder if the word sorry is correct&hellip; (long hesitation). The question is what are the alternative scenarios to the fact that we have sold or are in the process of selling some parts of Home Credit? At the end of the day, when you add it all up, the Home Credit project was successful, and it was a good business plan. If you approached it from the ego only and said that this is something the sun doesn&rsquo;t set on and are willing to take additional large risks and capital exposure, it could have been sustained. But that&rsquo;s not the right strategy. The most pivotal moment for Home Credit was when we realized that its business could not be grown in China in the long term.
Let us return to the Czech Republic and its development. What do you think has been achieved? What are you happy about, and what are you less happy about?
I was fortunate to have lived through the 1990s when a legal framework was quickly established on which a free market could operate. Of course, there were a lot of excesses, but it was done quickly, and it started a period of prosperity. But somewhere between 2000 and 2005, we lost some of our internal momentum and have been hesitating (floundering) ever since&mdash;sometimes better, sometimes worse, depending on whether Germany is going or standing still. At the level of state infrastructure, nothing substantial has been built. I don&rsquo;t just mean physical infrastructure, but mainly digitalization and better education. Simply creating an environment where new opportunities can grow again. We have a lot of educated and tech-savvy people here, but we could benefit more from them if they had better conditions. The vision of getting out of the socialist morass was fulfilled, but then nothing followed. I don&rsquo;t know&mdash;what is the supporting idea for our country? Yet there are similarly sized countries, for example, Denmark or the Baltic States, which have their own ideas and greatly benefit from them.
You don&rsquo;t see anything good here?
It&rsquo;s amazing that despite all the negative things I&rsquo;ve said, there are a lot of new businesses being created here and there are a lot of young people trying to do something good. Not just in business. Plus, Europe itself is starting to catch up with America in start-ups. Fortunately, it&rsquo;s not just about Silicon Valley anymore.
When do you miss Petr Kellner most?
It&rsquo;s complicated. I don&rsquo;t think there is a specific situation I can define. But I think of him often. Every day. The hole that&rsquo;s been left in his wake is awfully big. He was big in scope and personality, so it makes sense that he left a big hole. He filled the space around him, he was a specific person, and he also imprinted a culture on PPF that was extremely strong and attractive to a certain group of people. I miss that, too.
Will your departure change the function of the family&rsquo;s advisory board? 
I suppose its role needs to be redefined in some way. But that&rsquo;s not up to me.
You said at the beginning that it was extremely difficult to take responsibility for the whole of PPF from the position of CEO at the time when Petr Kellner passed. How do you look back on that time?
It was definitely my most difficult period in business. Logically. It wasn&rsquo;t just that Petr died, which has all the personal feelings and practicalities attached to it. At the same time, there was Covid, and then came the war in Ukraine. We had quite a lot of business in Russia. But I think in the end, I managed to do it quite well. It&rsquo;s not just to my credit though&mdash;it&rsquo;s the people here at PPF. It was really tough for everybody&mdash;Petr was the driver behind a huge number of projects and went into all sorts of detail. And the fact that we&rsquo;ve been able to follow up without a hitch is really good. Of course, we could have done more, but overall, it created a foundation for the future. From firefighting, the Group went back to increasing activity.
How difficult will it be for the family as shareholders to continue to develop PPF?
It&rsquo;s not easy, but the Group has a lot of inertia, and I think it&rsquo;s going well now and the family is getting used to their new role.
Could the situation be interpreted as a shift from a rapidly managed company by one founder to a larger corporation? 
It is inevitable that PPF will become a bit of a corporation. As a founder, Petr could have played much more freely with individual businesses. They were his. He invented them, paid for them, and largely ran them. The responsibility for Ren&aacute;ta who is very actively involved, and the second generation is different. It&rsquo;s no longer a one-man company&mdash;in a good way, the shareholders will be more conservative, and the Group has to be run more like a corporation. How much? It&rsquo;s always about balance. Of course, it&rsquo;s a question of who on the family side will be the most involved in the future.
This text was translated from the Czech original and edited for clarity.

Didier Stoessel: Interview for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

The interview was published in the <a href="https://www.faz.net/aktuell/">Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung</a> on Friday 25 August 2023. The original text in German can be found <a href="https://zeitung.faz.net/faz/finanzen/2023-08-25/natuerlich-sind-wir-nicht-begeistert/930319.html">here.</a>
You invested in Pro Sieben Sat.1 half a year ago. Since then, the company&rsquo;s half-year losses have multiplied eightfold to 86 million euros and its share price has declined by nearly 20 percent. Is that still a good investment?We&rsquo;re long-term investors. We started buying shares early. For us, today&rsquo;s position is okay. This also applies to this investment.
How large is your share today?
We have disclosed that we have crossed the threshold of a 15 percent share in Pro Sieben Sat.1. We have not reported crossing a threshold of 20 percent. That means we own between 15 and 20 percent.
Are you currently purchasing more shares?
We have no further disclosure to make in this regard. We&rsquo;re happy with where we are today.
Some investors associate investment in media with political intentions. Does PPF?
No. We&rsquo;re crystal clear about that. Just look at our Central European Media Enterprises. CME operates television stations in five countries in East-Central and Southern Europe. We guarantee newsrooms their absolute independence. Independent journalism is a value in and of itself, one that we stand for.
You were not welcomed with open arms, not even by MFE &ndash; deceased former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi&rsquo;s Media For Europe &ndash; which with a 28-percent stake holds the largest share in Pro Sieben Sat.1.
It&rsquo;s clear that people were initially surprised and wondered: Who is this? Then we explained our intentions. In all the countries in which we&rsquo;re active, we always try to get along well with all stakeholders. Reputation is extremely important for us as a global investor. Let me put it this way: If you want to be a blue chip, you have to act like one. We&rsquo;re not here to cause trouble, but to help.
And all is good now?
Our mutual interactions today are friendly and constructive. We have our representative on the supervisory board, which hopefully will be soon confirmed by the court. The choice was welcomed by all the others. MFE has two representatives on the supervisory board, we have one. End of story.
Will Berlusconi&rsquo;s death change anything?
You&rsquo;d have to ask MFE. We&rsquo;re happy to be where we are today. We see ourselves in a good position.
PPF has invested its assets of 40 billion euros in many areas: financial services, telecommunications, e-commerce, real estate, construction of transport vehicles, and even yacht rentals. How do television stations fit into all this?
Firstly: We&rsquo;re a family-run, globally active investment company with a conservative but clear investment philosophy. We&rsquo;re most easily described as a patient long-term investor who likes to get involved in fragmented growth markets that offer opportunities through digitisation and that are sustainable and climate-friendly.
Which doesn&rsquo;t necessarily lead to media.
We invest in media because we believe that we have a good understanding of the market. Secondly, video consumption is increasing worldwide. You can watch videos at any time of day or night on a wide range of devices. We have the content and the technological capabilities to deliver what consumers want, everywhere and at any time. All we have to do is monetise it. There are huge possibilities and great opportunities.
Are you not afraid of Amazon, Netflix, and the rest?
Those are fantastic competitors. But is Netflix going to decide tomorrow to make a supermodel series with Heidi Klum in Germany and Austria? Probably not.
You&rsquo;re not afraid of their size?
Size means a lot in this business, but local content and live content are much more important. People want news and stories from their lives, from their region, in their language. I firmly believe in this. That&rsquo;s why we have such faith in the media market. And we see many trends. Pro Sieben Sat.1 operates only in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. But with our media, we&rsquo;re active in many other regions and possess expertise in digitisation and telecommunications. For instance, we have just acquired a share in the fast-growing streaming platform Viaplay, Scandinavia&rsquo;s largest.
Didier Stoessel, Chief Investment Officer, PPF, Prague -&nbsp;Photo: PPF
Even with the large streaming providers, not all that glitters is gold. When they run into trouble, what does that mean for the other providers?
Many of the large streaming services are currently losing hundreds of millions of dollars. People shouldn&rsquo;t forget that they have to raise prices. The platforms will be asking between 20 and 25 euros a month. That is an opportunity for other providers. I&rsquo;m convinced that traditional . . .
&hellip; free and advertising-funded &hellip;
&hellip;linear television possesses a great market potential for monetising content.
Right now, Pro Sieben Sat.1 is not achieving this sufficiently &ndash; as the business figures show. So: what should be done?
Naturally, we&rsquo;re not thrilled. That is definitely not the case. We&rsquo;re very pleased with what has been accomplished in the past six months. Right now, the good news is that all the shareholders have one goal: to make sure that Pro Sieben Sat.1 gets back on the winning track. On the other hand, it&rsquo;s also true that the company and the entire industry are currently working in a very difficult environment.
Which means?
Everybody has to pull together and provide the board with as much support as possible, and as much help as is needed to make sure that the company stays on track.
Is that a call to arms or a description of the situation?
Everyone is on board. And the strategy presented by our CEO, Bert Habets, is clear.
Meaning the announcement that 400 jobs will be cut, and the promise to finally get the Joyn streaming platform up and running?
There&rsquo;s a big difference, of course, between presenting a strategy and implementing it. Many individual steps are required. You have to build up teams again, television channels have to perform better. It&rsquo;s clear that the monetisation of content has to become more attractive across all media. It&rsquo;s equally clear that the entire digitisation process has not made much progress in the past five years. This has to be made up for at an extremely fast pace. That&rsquo;s clear to everybody. Everybody knows what has to happen and that it really has to be done.
So there&rsquo;s not much time to practice?
The next five or six months are important. Then we&rsquo;ll see how the German advertising market is developing. Content has to be improved as well. Something like that won&rsquo;t happen overnight. For that, you need the right people and a detailed action plan that management is hopefully capable of implementing. Let&rsquo;s wait and see in another six months. Then we can talk about it again.
That&rsquo;s not a long time.
Six months can be a long time and also a very short time. But it has to be enough for us to concentrate and focus our energy on reconfiguring the programme for 2024. You know, our content should make people happy, it should excite and move them.
CEO Habets has your full confidence?
He does, and 100 percent support. He did a convincing job as CEO of RTL Nederland. The digital transformation that he accomplished there was highly successful. Now, of course, it&rsquo;s not 20 million but 80 million potential customers, which requires a quantum leap. In other words, everything depends on his ability to properly implement the concept. That will be decisive for Pro Sieben Sat.1.
There has been much turmoil at the company: delayed financial statements, losses, the departure of top managers, and layoffs. Did you expect such restructuring?
We took a close look at the company before purchasing the first share. We analysed all segments, compared advertising times, and so on. And we were not surprised. But the important thing now is to earn money with the content across all channels. This won&rsquo;t happen by waiting and watching.
That requires investments, not owners who expect quick dividends.
Of course, the company needs more investments for this to happen. Some future profits will have to be reinvested. We&rsquo;re talking about a long-term investment. But we see great potential, as long as the necessary restructuring gets underway. The success or failure of Pro Sieben Sat.1 and of every other media company in Europe will depend on how and whether they are capable of distributing and selling their content more broadly than today. Telecommunications providers will be decisive in this area. This, too, is a business we understand.
The interview was led by Andreas Mihm. 
<a href="https://zeitung.faz.net/faz/finanzen/2023-08-25/natuerlich-sind-wir-nicht-begeistert/930319.html">https://zeitung.faz.net/faz/finanzen/2023-08-25/natuerlich-sind-wir-nicht-begeistert/930319.html</a>

PPF CEO Talks to Hospodarske Noviny and Other Reporters on the Group Results and Investment Strategy

Jiří Šmejc

Jiří Šmejc’s Annual Media Briefing (HN Czech Business Daily)

Bloomberg Reports that PPF Group Targets M&A as Asset Prices Pressured

PPF Group NV&nbsp;is seeking out acquisitions in Europe as the investment company controlled by the Czech billionaire Kellner family expects asset prices to come under more pressure amid rising interest rates. &nbsp;
PPF&rsquo;s most recent large deals involved buying into publicly traded companies as stock market prices have dropped more than privately-held assets, according to Chief Executive Officer Jiri Smejc. Valuations in general &ldquo;still don&rsquo;t fully reflect the state of economies&rdquo; and many businesses are finding it more difficult and costly to refinance debt as borrowing costs climb, he said.&nbsp;
Full article: <a href="https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2023-06-23%2Fbillionaire-kellner-family-office-targets-m-a-as-asset-prices-pressured&amp;data=05%7C01%7Cprusa%40ppfgroup.mail.onmicrosoft.com%7C4c6056fa642e42d3269808db77c87ac2%7C5ae9dff0870147f6a00b343f3cd6bc20%7C0%7C0%7C638235475664140308%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=trluHMpIfiMfFLyQDgvYMKhZnIp4RVGbvfdj%2FH2qWiE%3D&amp;reserved=0">www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-23/billionaire-kellner-family-office-targets-m-a-as-asset-prices-pressured</a> Author: Peter Laca

Jiří Šmejc’s Annual Media Briefing (Bloomberg)

Quiet achiever – Perspectives from PPF Group’s top lawyer Luboš Král 

Interview for Forbes

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