Nadace The Kellner Family Foundation - PPF Group

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Renáta and Petr Kellner set up their family foundation in XXXX. Alongside the core educational projects it initiates and funds, the Foundation contributes to projects being implemented by individuals and institutions in education, the arts, and the promotion of health.   

Nadace The Kellner Family Foundation

CETIN’s mission is to build, operate and constantly innovate the reliable, secure and fast telecommunications infrastructure.

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www.cetin.cz

CETIN Czech Republic

<h2>General info</h2>The company, a wholesale provider of telecommunications services, owns and operates the largest electronic communications network in the Czech Republic. It offers its services, always under the same conditions, to all telecommunications operators and internet service providers who supply services to end customers via the CETIN infrastructure. The company mainly offers mobile network infrastructure services, mass fixed network services (network access services, xDSL and optical connectivity, IP TV, and voice services), data services for corporate networks, and data centre leasing.

CETIN&rsquo;s national fixed network comprises approximately 20 million pairs of copper cables and almost 46,000 km of fibre-optic cables, though this length is increasing all the time thanks to extensive investment. Mobile technology is disseminated by around 6,400 base stations. CETIN contributes to a network sharing project and provides its mobile infrastructure to O2 and T-Mobile. CETIN also offers international services to domestic and foreign providers. On the international stage, the company maintains a presence via physical network nodes (POPs) in London, Vienna, Bratislava, Frankfurt and Hong Kong, and offers comprehensive international voice and data services to over 200 customers worldwide. CETIN, as the administrator and operator of the largest critical information infrastructure for telecommunications in the Czech Republic, oversees the protection of its customers and the availability of services.

<h2>Data security</h2>In the protection of its network and users, it adopts security measures that are in line with the recommendations of the National Cyber and Information Security Agency (N&Uacute;KIB) and the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA). It is involved in FENIX, the project that draws together companies providing connections to important services with a view to ensuring that these remain in operation even in the most critical situations. The company continuously engages in risk analysis and cybersecurity auditing in line with best practice, conducts security tests, invests in security technologies and specialists, and shares knowledge and best practices with PPF Telecom Group.

Czech Republic

CETIN&rsquo;s mission is to build, operate and constantly innovate the reliable, secure and fast telecommunications infrastructure essential for the further digital transformation and competitiveness of the Czech economy. The CETIN telecommunications network&rsquo;s set of mobile and fixed technologies is available to 99.6% of Czech households.

CETIN continues to upgrade its network throughout the country As the manager of the country&rsquo;s largest communication infrastructure, CETIN annually invests billions of crowns in its development. CETIN is working hard to build a system of fibre-optic connections and complete the blanket modernisation and acceleration of the original copper network. In both cases, the average available speed in the CETIN access network has increased further, rising by 25% on 2019 to the current 105 Mbps.

Infobox

Figures for CETIN CZ (group, consolidated) *

Juraj Šedivý

“Our state-of-the-art telecommunications infrastructure solutions provide the backbone for the digitalisation of the world around us.”

Cetin Group

The Czech Republic is one of the best countries in fighting cancer:  Dr. Cook (The Economist Impact)

PPF Group is an international investment group founded in the Czech 
Republic in 1991. It has grown to manage operations in 25 countries around the world.

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Sotio

SOTIO a.s.

SOTIO N.V.

SOTIO is building a&nbsp;diversified portfolio of cancer treatment products based on its own research and development, cooperation with partners, licensing agreements, investments, and mergers and acquisitions. Teams of top Czech and foreign experts work at SOTIO within the framework of its far-reaching international activities.
SOTIO has the internal capacities it needs for research, clinical development, and product marketing. The company has built its own production and research laboratories in Hole&scaron;ovice, Prague, which are among the most modern and largest of their kind in Europe. SOTIO&rsquo;s activities are the largest privately-funded research in the medical field in the Czech Republic. SOTIO also has operations in the US, China, Russia, and elsewhere in Europe, such as Switzerland.

SOTIO verifies the safety and efficacy of the products it is developing in a&nbsp;number of phase I&nbsp;to III clinical trials. Since 2012, the company has initiated thirteen clinical studies in Europe and the US focusing on patients with solid tumors, especially those with ovarian, lung, and prostate cancer. SOTIO is the first ever Czech company to reach phase III of clinical development.
SOTIO actively seeks out opportunities to work with other companies and institutions developing promising oncology treatments. It also manages preclinical and clinical development for other biotechnology companies that have contractual or capital ties to PPF Group or SOTIO. One such example is the French company Cytune Pharma. In addition, it manages PPF Group&rsquo;s investments in English biotechnology company Autolus Therapeutics and Swiss company Cellestia Biotech.

Other Companies

Switzerland

China

France

Russia

The mission of SOTIO, the biotechnology company that joined PPF Group in 2012, is to research, develop, and provide access to new and innovative treatment methods for patients suffering from severe forms of cancer.

At the end of 2020, PPF sold its stake in NBE-Therapeutics, a&nbsp;company developing innovative ADC products for the treatment of solid tumors, to leading global pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim.
This deal, the largest of its kind in Europe in 10 years, showed the value of the ADCs that SOTIO maintains in its portfolio and that it continues to develop. These products could reach their first patients by the end of 2021 in the first phase of clinical trials.

Sale of PPF's Stake in NBE-Therapeutics

"SOTIO exemplifies the world-class standard of Czech science in its mission and results. Our efforts are focused on finding a cure for cancer."

Today we will talk about healthcare! But for once, our debate won't be on covid (thank God!). We will talk about public health, oncology, and prevention. And, about an Economist Impact study on Cancer preparedness that has just released a&nbsp;large paper about the Czech Republic and Czech system of Oncology care. Therefore, I&nbsp;am super happy; I&nbsp;can talk today with Dr. Robert Cook, the Clinical Director of Economist Impact, the research arm of The Economist Group. Dr. Cook lead a&nbsp;team of analysts who have already looked at almost 30 national oncology systems, the Czech Republic becoming the last piece in the puzzle. 
Even though most of the focus, when we talk about medicine, shifts toward covid and managing the pandemics, the Czech Republic can be really proud of the quality of&nbsp;its oncological care. According to Dr. Robert Cook, who took part on the Economist Impact study on oncology in twenty nine countries, in which the Czech Republic was ranked 8th, it is remarkable what the Czech oncologists can do having in mind how little money is being invested into oncology&nbsp;in the country.
So, dear Dr. Cook, it's&nbsp;great having you!
Pleasure is mine Jan!
My first question will be about public health: Even though you used to be a&nbsp;general practitioner, you have spent the last twenty years in public health. And public health unfortunately has been a&nbsp;sort of pariah of healthcare, especially in the Western world. For decades it stayed in the closet; not many people had been interested in it and it was underfunded and seen as unimportant. Now covid has changed everything, the media, politicians, and even people drinking beer at the pub are talking about public health. How do you feel about it? It's&nbsp;a&nbsp;good observation, what you just said; the whole public health field has indeed been seen to wake up. Not only policymakers, but also ordinary people are now truly interested in it. I&nbsp;listen to the BBC regularly, and I&nbsp;am amazed how many epidemiologists are invited guests and how often they appear. Honestly, many are now household names. Prior to this I&nbsp;didn't even know how many epidemiologists there were in the UK.
It is also interesting how much people have started to think about numbers and data when talking about healthcare. Before covid, healthcare was a&nbsp;very individual thing, but now people have begun to understand the population, societal and economic consequences of good health and healthcare.
There is an old saying that generals always prepare to fight their last war rather than the next. From this perspective, maybe the COVID is a&nbsp;sort of wake-up call because this pandemic might be the first among many upcoming societal, complex health issues we will need to deal with. There is aging, instability of health financing, microbial resistance...
This is totally true...
And all those challenges will need our focus, effort, and a&nbsp;lot of money. There is no free lunch in healthcare. You know, public health has always faced a&nbsp;problem. That is, it frequently needs to take a&nbsp;long-term view on things. This is in contrast to modern societies with very fast news cycles or low attention spans. Politicians in democracies often think about the electoral cycle and their party&rsquo;s&nbsp;prospects for reelection, for example. Few people were interested in what will happen in ten years or longer. Sad but true. However, there are opportunities to change this, if we recognize the underlying causes of short-termism.
For example, healthcare has become so complex an endeavor that it is now difficult for one person to fully understand it. It is no longer only about access to health facilities or high-quality drugs. Good health, from a&nbsp;personal and societal perspective, is now about our behavior, about stress, food, clean water, and the complex environment around us, including the effects of climate change.
Because politicians come and go, health systems themselves need to consider how to reposition themselves to address new approaches to health and societal needs. Acknowledging that Covid took us totally by surprise, we need to ensure we focus on the future and prepare better for when something similar threatens us again.
Let's&nbsp;take one step down and focus on the intriguing point you mentioned: our behavior and its impact on our health. Thanks to big data and enough computing power, we see, also in a&nbsp;quantitative manner, that our behavior impacts our health by 40%. Then, there are genes, 30%, socio economic aspect &amp; access to health, 15%, the quality of the healthcare system, 10%, and finally environmental exposure, 5%. Therefore, and clearly, our behavior constitutes a&nbsp;critical element of our health. 
Thus, do you think the behavioral economy approach, for example in the form of nudges, might be a&nbsp;good strategy for how to positively influence our behavior?
Yes, that's&nbsp;an interesting question. I&nbsp;think it's&nbsp;possible to use them, but first, we need to break down the prevention pathway into separate parts. Not all of them are suitable for nudges and different forms of interventions might be required. For the hardest behaviors that require lifelong lifestyle change, like weight reduction, or smoking cessation, complex strategies are needed. Nudges have been shown to work here, but are probably best combined with public health campaigns, positive social media activism, structural reforms and also financial incentives in some form...
For more straightforward problems, like promoting vaccination against covid, here simple nudges might be helpful. For example, opt-out, rather than opt-in techniques.
Finally, we should not ignore possible inequalities in health outcomes, health access, and broader socioeconomic factors. For behaviors to change, most people need accurate information to make decisions and both the opportunity, and motivation to embrace a&nbsp;healthier way of life.
Some people argue against nudges, saying that they are just pure manipulation. To a&nbsp;certain extent this is true. My view is that we are often prone to being manipulated all the time and everywhere anyway. Social media, e-commerce, and even product placement in old-fashioned grocery stores are examples. Just think about a&nbsp;candy stall full of chocolates next to every cashier that is waiting for children. Fortunately, this is being changed, at least here in Britain. I&nbsp;find sometimes it's&nbsp;now quite hard for me to find my favorite bar of chocolate in a&nbsp;supermarket. Before, it was next to the cashier!
This, to me at least, seems a&nbsp;positive example of nudging that isn't necessarily manipulation. By reducing the opportunity to pick up a&nbsp;chocolate bar on the way out, I'm not prevented from planning to pick it up when walking around the whole shop, it just reduces my short-term thinking and changes a&nbsp;habit.
How to apply this to more complex and expensive parts of medicine: like diabetes or oncology? To persuade people to live better and also not avoid/miss their check-ups and preventive screenings?
I&nbsp;think there is a&nbsp;place for nudging as well. Again: for example, an opt-out mechanism for health checks and oncology screenings, when people will get their place scheduled automatically in places that suit them and well in advance. To create a&nbsp;seamless pathway and seamless access to care. Also, to apply digital technologies much more to communicate with people more frequently. &ndash; People use apps now for everything from payments and groceries; with obvious security and confidentiality safeguards why not use them more when communicating with your family physician.
Maybe let's&nbsp;chunk this oncology pathway into a&nbsp;few pieces. First, there is a&nbsp;problem with our behavior: pollution, junk food, stress, smoking, etc. Here I&nbsp;like public health marketing quite a&nbsp;lot. But in a&nbsp;modern way: KOLs, influencers, social media, gamification, and ideally with some financial nudges to support good behavior.&nbsp;Then, there is the second pot, which is real prevention: checkups, mammography, ultrasounds, colon cancer screenings, and so on. And here, we need a&nbsp;more seamless pathway, as you pointed out.&nbsp;And finally, there is the treatment, which shall be centralized and accessible as much as possible.
Yes, I&nbsp;think it is essential to break it down into a&nbsp;pathway because different pieces need different approaches, and the more upstream we go, it tends to get more complex and complicated. It's&nbsp;not about healthcare only, but also education, employers, environment, including the play of socioeconomic disparities.
Fixing some of these upstream changes is not fast nor easy. Just think about smoking cessation. How quickly, if you do stop smoking do you accrue the benefits of a&nbsp;healthier lifestyle? And the same goes for dietary change. How quickly will a&nbsp;healthy and nutritious diet bring you to a&nbsp;healthy weight and then better health status? The changes can be made very fast, but maintaining them needs more focus. How can they become a&nbsp;habit? So here we come to the role of family and upbringing because it's&nbsp;much easier and better to develop healthy habits as a&nbsp;child.

Let's talk now more about oncology. As a researcher for Economist Impact, you were very much involved in an extensive international survey around cancer care preparedness. You analyzed the quality of prevention, treatment, and care for oncology patients in almost 30 health systems around the globe. And just recently you finished a study on the Czech Republic. Could you tell us a little bit more about this global initiative?
This is a&nbsp;significant initiative that's&nbsp;been running for several years now. We have developed an extensive scoring system to evaluate national oncology systems and rank countries based on their preparedness to tackle cancer. We looked at a&nbsp;range of policies in prevention, funding approaches, infrastructure, access to innovation, and the connectivity of oncology care to broader health systems. The focus was not only about the indicators of policies in place but also about their actual implementation. That's&nbsp;why we also look for evidence that countries are doing what their own guidelines and policies advise them. Finally, we try to show countries what and how they could improve their oncology care.
So how do you see our oncology system in the Czech Republic?
The Czech Republic is very good. I&nbsp;mean very, very good: in our international ranking, you are number 8th out of 29 countries.
That is great!
The country scores very high in oncology policy, planning and strategy of care. For the care that people get, this is also very high quality. Also, we scored data collection and screening programs highly. Finally, thinking about your complex oncology centers and the specialization of care. &ndash; Here, the Czech Republic has stood out also. What shall we improve?
One aspect might be the connection between policies, such as screening programs or centralization of care, and their actual implementation into practice. You know, guidelines are one thing, but you need to live by them. Another point made by this research is that the political will to change what needs to be changed could be more decisive. But I&nbsp;understand that life is about priorities and oncology is only one part of medicine, and healthcare is only one part of a&nbsp;government's&nbsp;responsibilities.
There are not only great, centralized oncology centers full of professors and expensive equipment...there is also the grassroots level of medicine we shall not forget about: regional hospitals and primary care. And especially primary care physicians shall constitute a&nbsp;strong, confident first block of healthcare: as gatekeepers, as advocates, like a&nbsp;gateway, both upstream and downstream.
I&nbsp;think primary care could have a&nbsp;more substantial role in many areas and not only in oncology. By primary care I&nbsp;don't mean only physicians, but also nurses, dentists, pharmacists, physiotherapists and optometrists. All are essential making first contact with people as the base of a&nbsp;properly functioning health system. Unfortunately, maintaining good connections and collaboration between these groups and with hospitals can be challenging. And it is not only about information going from primary care to oncology centers but also from the centers to primary care. Primary care clinicians often know their patients well and can help guide through the system. Modern cancer care is a&nbsp;multiple specialty system now.
Yes, and it is not only about care itself, but also about the quality of life. Not to measure only life expectancy but the quality of life we give to patients when treating cancer. Now we are talking about pathways again, which is good. Before, it was about upstream, now we go downstream. You know, many, many people, who unfortunately develop cancer, begin to value life itself. Many of them will aim to live a&nbsp;much fuller life...perhaps trying to do all the things on their bucket lists, the things they always wished to do. To do this we need to acknowledge how important it is to survivors of cancer to live fully and with a&nbsp;good quality of life.
When we connect that to cancer care, we open the topic of palliative and community care.
Yes again we come back to primary care. On the one hand: high-end care needs to be centralized, but on the other hand, care that is connected to this desire for quality-of-life aspect needs to be as local as possible. And here, I&nbsp;think we often underestimate the value of continuity of care that can be provided in primary care.
Now we are nicely coming to the ethical aspect of healthcare and of oncology. When to care, how to care but also when to stop to care. And by stopping the care, I&nbsp;mean stopping curative intervention and thinking about palliative care that shall be as close to your home as possible. Because from a&nbsp;holistic perspective, there is the beginning of life, and there is also an end, as part of what we can call the mystery of life. Another way of saying this is that "It's&nbsp;not about when you die, but it's&nbsp;about how you die". Discussions about this can be very individual. And I&nbsp;think modern medicine offers more options now that was the case in the past. Some patients want to stay at a&nbsp;hospital, some at palliative care, some at a&nbsp;hospice, and some of them want to stay home with their families. Every option has to be a&nbsp;balance, between its pros and cons also. This applies to health access and delivery, too. Thus, it's&nbsp;a&nbsp;task for policymakers to allow the health system to offer a&nbsp;range of options for patients and their families to choose.
If you think about it, in our whole conversation, we are talking about patients as about clients. We talk a&nbsp;lot about the pathway, patient centricity, and customer experience. And sometimes health professionals have a&nbsp;bit of a&nbsp;problem embracing this patient centricity; some of them still think about patients as machines... as bodies that shall be treated. However, we see that a&nbsp;holistic approach is necessary to get quality output out of healthcare. We also talked about that a&nbsp;lot in connection to behavioral and societal aspects of health.
I&nbsp;do recognize this as a&nbsp;long-term trend and long-term transformation, which has been with us for many decades. True shared decision-making between health professionals on one side and patients and family on the other side is a&nbsp;positive approach, but it does take extra time. And yes, there are and there always will be tensions; but that is normal.
Maybe let's&nbsp;finish by coming back to the Czech Republic. Your research in cancer and oncology preparedness won't be possible without analyzing the broader context of the overall health care system. Any last advice on what we could do better?
Interesting question. I&nbsp;think first would be to use the experience of the pandemic to consider what went well and what didn't. Reflecting on such an extreme health system shock provides much to learn from. Here I&nbsp;would like to say that infectious diseases are not going away anytime soon and we shall get ready for further shocks. The rapid development and approval of innovations, vaccines and antiviral therapies for example, shouldn't be forgotten.
Then, there are non-communicable diseases: cardiac diseases, diabetes, cancer, and many others. that are a&nbsp;significant financial burden for health systems and the whole society. Here the long term goal should be to go upstream as much as possible into the preventive activities that work. Money spent on prevention often provides good return on investment over the long-term.
Then, there is the sustainability of healthcare itself: financial constraints are looming in most parts of the world and because of aging populations, new technologies and the undersupply of health professionals, system capacity will continue to be challenged. Progress in healthcare needs a&nbsp;long-term perspective. It takes time to train health professionals and time for many preventive interventions to bring about improvements, let&rsquo;s&nbsp;not forget that.
Finally, the stance of countries on environmental sustainability, climate change, and international health are important pillars of global economic and societal health and stability. Healthcare is becoming more driven by equity and in the future will be a&nbsp;lot about this. What happens in other countries affects us all.
Excellent finish! Thank you, Doctor Cook, for the wonderful conversation.
It has been a&nbsp;pleasure and see you in Prague.
Online article is available <a href="https://www.info.cz/zpravodajstvi/svet/robert-cook-interview-en">here</a>

<h3>PhDr. Jan Ruzicka, MBA</h3>
Chief External Affairs Officer at the Home Credit Group, the world&rsquo;s leading consumer finance provider. Based out of Hong Kong, Jan runs company networks in the US, Asia, and Europe. Before that, he used to live in Beijing, Cambridge, and Prague. He even spent ten years working for the Czech Government, advocating, and shaping the health reform as the Director-General at the Ministry of Health. Jan teaches Behavioral Economy and the Disruption of Finance and Healthcare at universities in Asia and Europe. He is especially interested in how innovation can create financial inclusion and health equality.
&nbsp;

Rob Cook

<h3>Dr. Robert Cook</h3>
Dr. Robert Cook is Clinical Director of Economist Impact, the insight and policy arm of The Economist group. Furthermore, he served as a deputy director and adviser to the prestigious National Institute for Health Research. Dr. Cook is a general practitioner by training and practice.

ICP EIU

Big Stories by Jan Růžička on info.cz

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When Cetin (Česk&aacute; telekomunikačn&iacute; infrastruktura) was founded - a spin-off from the operator O2 in 2015 - it acquired the extensive O2 mobile access network and at the same time slightly outdated network of the former Czech Telecom. Cetin has invested CZK 27 billion in network upgrade since its inception. But this is only the beginning. The company, which is a part of PPF Group, has launched a ten-year innovation plan worth CZK 55 billion.
What is the main objective of the investment? Significant acceleration of internet connectivity for businesses and millions of households. From the originally planned CZK 22 billion, we have increased the investment project by CZK 5 billion, with the largest part of the money going into fiber optics. In 2015 the average connection speed was around 22 megabits per second, today the most common speed available is 250 megabits per second and the average speed on our connection lines is over 120 megabits. In particular, the number of people who can connect at speeds over one gigabit per second is increasing. We're currently at around 105,000 fiber connections and our aim is to get fiber at these speeds as close to as many people as possible. We have also upgraded more than 2,500 exchanges. Over the course of four years of technology replacement, we migrated over 420,000 voice services nationwide while fully operational.
At the same time, we are continuing to modernize our mobile network, deploying 5G technology. The project, which we are implementing with the Swedish company Ericsson, involves the planned generational replacement of the existing 2G and 4G technologies and the switching off of 3G technology. This will significantly improve the user experience when using mobile services, reduce the energy burden and contribute to the efficient construction of a nationwide 5G network. This will, among other things, create the right conditions for the emergence of new business models across industries.
Do you still build fixed metallic lines, or do you focus exclusively on fiber optics? Virtually 100 per cent of all new installations are fiber optics. In total, we now operate 55,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables and 20 million kilometers of paired metallic cables. This is where we have carried out a comprehensive modernization and acceleration of the original metallic network over the last three years. This year we provided high-speed internet to our one millionth customer. As the pandemic has shown, a strong quality internet connection is now an essential part of everyday life.
Will the end customer recognize the amount of money invested in infrastructure? I am convinced that they will. We bring fiber optic internet directly to clients' homes. This gives them virtually unlimited bandwidth for the internet, TV, multimedia, gaming or smart home within a single connection line. We have fully launched the system of construction of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) connections, and where this is not possible we have deployed the bonding technology, which makes it possible to connect two telephone lines on the metallic network and thus double the connection speed. Since conventional modems cannot handle this, we developed our own terminal device called Terminator in cooperation with Zyxel. In combination with the construction of remote switches, so-called DSLAMs, of which there are currently 6222 in the network, we have accelerated 92 per cent of all metallic connections. Importantly, the wholesale model makes this infrastructure available to all internet service providers who are interested.
Will the aforementioned investments make services to end customers more expensive? Cetin does not determine prices for end customers. It is determined by the providers. As for our wholesale prices, we have not increased them.
Why does fixed internet only work at speeds of around 20 megabits per second in some locations, including central parts of cities? We have relatively few slower connections in our network. These are usually locations where there is a problem with construction, i.e., mostly in city centers or in areas with strong competition. Where customer needs are covered by competitors' services, it doesn't always make sense for us to invest there too.
Is it bureaucratically difficult to build fiber optics in city centers? Of course, administration and legislation delay the construction process; it takes a whole year to obtain a permit under the Building Act, negotiate rights of user, secure easements and obtain all the documentation. Whether you are building a house or need to get a cable into the ground, it is pretty much the same in terms of red tape, we have to go through all the standard permits that are given for the area in question. In Prague, for example, it is necessary to obtain permits from up to 80 entities before construction. It normally takes a year before we can come in and start digging. In 25 to 30 per cent of the projects, it won't even make it through the authorities, they will ban the construction. That is also why this year's 75,000 new connections will be implemented mainly in residential buildings.
A certain advantage is the existing infrastructure: in layman's terms, where we have free space in the already laid conduits, it is possible to &ldquo;blow in&rdquo; the fiber optics into the existing lines without the need for digging. At the same time, we are introducing a new technology, a special machine that means we won't have to make wide trenches because it cuts a groove for the cable to be laid below the surface. Apart from a tiny groove in the asphalt, no one notices anything. A two-hundred-meter stretch, which takes several weeks to be completed conventionally, can be done before noon. It is used in Germany or Austria, where the construction principles are stricter, and thanks to a change in Czech legislation, we can start using it here as well. It is a special machine that cuts into the asphalt, lays the cable and pours the asphalt surface in quick, successive steps. Provided, of course, that we don't intersect with other infrastructure.
How much did traffic on the Cetin network increase during the coronavirus pandemic? After the schools closed, the volume of traffic on the network increased, literally overnight, by 20 per cent. Mobile connections jumped out most significantly in the beginning, and in fact volumes have been growing ever since. On the other hand, in the fixed network, after a dramatic increase at the beginning of the pandemic, traffic started to decline slightly. We believe this is because at the beginning of the first wave, everyone actually stayed at home, but by the end of the spring of 2020, more people started going out. They often went somewhere where they didn't have a fixed connection, so the traffic on the mobile network grew &nbsp;massively. In the second wave of Covid, the traffic curve was much more jagged, both on mobile and on fix. In the third wave of Covid, when the measures were at their strictest, it was far from that in the mobile network, with people clearly moving more freely and returning to their everyday lives in the summer.
During the pandemic, it became clear how extremely important the availability of the internet is. It was absolutely essential that the internet be up and running virtually all the time, at all hours, for online classes or work conferences. And in quality for all one million households connected to our network. Previously we were used to people consuming data, i.e., downloading it, whereas during the pandemic they started playing their cameras more, sharing documents more... This partly compensated for the disproportion between data traffic to and from users.
So traffic in mobile network has grown more than in fixed network? In both, and the trends were changing during the pandemic. Last autumn, when the lockdown had not yet been announced, we noticed from the nature of the traffic in the network and the interest of people in connections that Czechs were preparing for the next lockdown. This is commonly seen at the end of the holidays, when people return from their vacations. Last year however, it came later, at the time of the regional elections. People started ordering internet subscriptions or increasing the capacity on existing lines. Which later turned out, unfortunately, to be a correct assumption.
The second interesting moment is related to this year's hockey championship. There was no lockdown, people moved freely and watched the Czech team's games on their mobile phones, which more than doubled the volume of traffic on the mobile network. At the same time, the parameter of the time of the match was crucial. When an important match is played in the afternoon, the mobile network has high traffic. When an popular match is played in the evening, everyone watches over a fixed connection. We must be prepared for all this.
Has the rise of online video rental sites such as Netflix had an impact on Cetin's network? In the past, data usage on the mobile network and the fixed network have always somehow complemented each other, alternating in peak traffic periods. But during the pandemic, all the rules were no longer valid, suddenly everyone started consuming content on mobile and on fixed line at the same time. We had to significantly increase capacity. This is not a problem when you need to add units of percent, or even fifty percent. When you need to get hundreds of percent extra capacity into the network, it's no easy task.
Do you expect Internet TV to continue to grow in the Czech Republic? VOD (video on demand) is an increasingly fast-growing market. In neighboring countries, the share of various forms of pay-TV is more than 90 per cent of all television entertainment; in the Czech Republic it is about 50 per cent. We are preparing a new platform for internet TV, which we will provide to our operators within the PPF Group, and we would like to provide this service to other operators who do not have the capacity to develop it independently.
You take care of the mobile networks of O2, T-Mobile and Nordic Telecom. Will fewer masts and transmitters be enough for 4G and future 5G? In general, an increasing number of transmitters are needed. But in Prague, for example, the network is so dense at the moment that there is no need to make it even more dense; there are locations where there are transmitters every 100 or 200 meters. However, in the long term, the process of densifying the network is never ending, so to be able to keep up with the increasing traffic on the network, it will simply be necessary. To keep up with the times, we are replacing the mobile access network with a completely new, so-called single RAN, which is a combination of 2G, 4G/LTE and 5G technologies in one universal solution.
When will the entire Prague Metro finally be covered? We've been reminded about Metro for a long time, but I don't think it's entirely fair to blame it primarily on the operators. Anyway: by the end of this year we will have most of the stations covered. Because of Covid, we still have 13 sections to go, so the final completion will not take place until early 2022.
Last year you completed the move from the Central Telecommunications Building in Žižkov to the new premises in Harfa. How much area does this allow you to save? We're down from 72,000 square meters to 13,000. The old building had its charm, but it was outdated and very wasteful. In the 1980s, there were two and a half thousand people working there, including over a thousand switchboard operators, which is completely unnecessary from the point of view of today's technology and there was no point in keeping the facility artificially alive. By moving to a more modern complex, we have achieved significant energy savings and our operations are now more environment-friendly.
More than six years on, how do you assess the separation of Cetin from O2? Developments in the global telecoms market confirm that the separation of the technology and infrastructure part from the rest of the operator was an extremely important decision. This model was then followed by other companies such as Vantage (Vodafone) and TOTEM (Orange). After the split, both companies were able to concentrate on what they were doing and were not held back by the &ldquo;other part&rdquo;. Cetin was better positioned to start providing fixed connectivity not just to O2 customers, but to attract more than 20 major ISP partners. This has effectively led to much more competition, which is of course appreciated by customers in the form of a broader choice according to a wide range of parameters.
Last year, Cetin became part of a multinational group with presence in other countries. What does this mean for Czech customers? Cetin Group is one of the largest infrastructure telecommunications operators in Central Europe, grouping together Czech Cetin and the infrastructure companies created as a result of the separation from local mobile operators &ndash; Telenor Group &ndash; in Bulgaria, Hungary and Serbia. We have become part of a larger company, and this regional model presents interesting opportunities for technological, operational and investment synergies that will also benefit customers in the Czech Republic.
Can you get better technology purchase prices due to greater scale? This is one of the areas where the synergy effect of a larger grouping is positively manifested.
A month ago, your shareholder, the PPF Group, sold a third of the shares of Cetin Group to Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC. Are you planning to enter the Asian markets? New opportunities have opened up for CETIN Group to benefit from the experience of a leading global infrastructure fund. In the telecoms infrastructure market, the Group may thus have opportunities for further growth, but it is looking mainly at markets that are a natural extension of the areas in which it already operates, rather than Asia.
Does this transaction mean the cancellation or at least postponement of the plans for IPO that has been speculated about in connection with Cetin? Yes, given the agreement between PPF and&nbsp;GIC, an IPO has become irrelevant. 
Are you considering acquisitions of data networks, for example from independent operators? We monitor the market, analyze several options each year and negotiations are ongoing. But our position in this respect is quite complicated. Alternative operators usually own the entire infrastructure, not only the end-customer connection itself, but also the other network elements required for interconnection. And logically they sell it as a whole, it doesn't pay to split it up. And we already own most of these elements, so any acquisitions are not completely economically viable for us. Moreover, as a wholesale operator, we don't want to buy a customer base, our focus is strictly on infrastructure, not the retail market.
I understand, infrastructure is crucial in today's world. We live in a time when internet connectivity is the key to everything, a necessary part of life, just like electricity, water or gas. Many people have come to understand that you can't do several things without the internet, and it will be an even more sensitive parameter in the future. When I was working in Germany, ATMs and payment terminals in a quarter of the country stopped working due to a combination of two failures. Even though it was on a Saturday morning, the impact was substantial: people were not able to shop, withdraw money, anything. When we explained this to the big clients afterwards, their answer was simple: we will pay anything, just don't let it happen again.
Many households experienced a similar epiphany during the coronavirus pandemic.&nbsp; Many people have realized that WiFi shared with neighbors is not optimal for children&rsquo;s remote learning. And even this little detail illustrates how dependent our lives are on internet connectivity. The digitalization of our lives is unstoppable and connectivity is a prerequisite. Everyone has to answer the following question for themselves: Is it possible to imagine life without the internet? Even for everyday tasks, work, cars and public transport, connectivity is necessary. Whether we like it or not, the internet is at the heart of everything that happens in our lives. Data is life.
*****
Author: Ondřej Hergesell

CETIN CEO in interview for Euro Weekly

CZK 27 billion put in the ground

CME Media Group Joins BAFTA albert Consortium as First CEE Member

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CME MEDIA ENTERPRISES B.V.

CME MEDIA SERVICES LIMITED Czech Republic

CME&rsquo;s operations include 30 television channels broadcasting to approximately 45 million people across five markets: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. In addition to broadcasting, CME produces content for its television channels and develops services and content for online platforms that are constantly on the rise.

CME television stations enjoy leading audience shares on all five markets. Their popularity is built mainly on local programming. CME Group&rsquo;s revenues come from advertising as well as paid and subscription services. In 2019, the combined television advertising spending in all CME&rsquo;s markets reached approximately $916 million.

CME was founded in 1994 with the launch of TV Nova, a&nbsp;private television station in the Czech Republic. PPF completed its acquisition of the CME media group on October 13, 2020.

Information about the top holding company CME Media Enterprises B.V. can be found <a href="https://cetv-net.nl/home/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>

Bulgaria

Romania

Slovenia

Slovakia

Central European Media Enterprises (CME) is a media and entertainment company operating television stations in five Central and Eastern European countries.

"We want to be a trend-setter driving the transformation of digital media and distribution and be among the first to offer new solutions."

Central European Media Enterprises (CME) 

&ldquo;As a leading producer of TV and VOD content in the CEE, we recognize our ability to promote and inspire our audiences to think about their own sustainable behaviour, but we realize the need to first address our own on-screen and off-screen sustainable behaviours. We are fully committed to the principles of albert and intend to implement changes across CME so that we can better measure and reduce our carbon impact. Our best-in-class content must also yield a best-in-class environmental footprint,&rdquo; says Didier Stoessel, CEO CME Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia.
CME joins an illustrious group of global industry leaders who are all dedicated to improving their carbon footprint. By reducing energy and waste, securing a sustainable supply chain, making operational improvements while on set and changing the culture of each and every employee, partner, supplier and distributor, CME believes it will help to promote sustainable behaviours across its 5 CME countries.
TV Nova, one of five stations that belong to the CME portfolio, has already started to introduce principles from albert into its daily operations. It has contributed to the publication of the first Green Filming manual in the Czech Republic and are working to normalise sustainable behaviours both on sets and in the actions and dialogues of characters. This includes episodes of Masterchef showing zero waste principle in food processing, avoiding using plastic bottles on screen as much as possible and even introducing a storyline in one of its flagship TV shows where children attend ecological schools and learn to be mindful about the impact of their actions on the environment.
For more information, go to www.wearealbert.org

Czech-based SOTIO from PPF Group plans to start clinical trials for its BOXR treatment this year. “The first patient will be from the US,” says Chief of Manufacturing Division, Luděk Sojka

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<h4>SOTIO plans on starting clinical trials for BOXR, a product that the company hopes will allow the treatment of solid tumors. &ldquo;We want to be on the map with the big names in pharmaceuticals, which are mainly based in Boston and London,&rdquo; says Luděk Sojka, chief of manufacturing division of SOTIO.</h4>

Ever since its foundation, SOTIO has been regarded as the most ambitious, but also the riskiest project that PPF has embarked on. Can you explain this ambition? Well, no doubt because we want to turn a biotech venture into an operational pharmaceutical company with a registered medication in the future. We want SOTIO to be on the map with the big names in pharmaceuticals, which are mostly located in Boston and London. We have made great strides in fulfilling this ambition over the last two years.
And why is it considered as PPF&rsquo;s riskiest project? Globally, most products tested in a preclinical stage don&rsquo;t make it all the way. Either they fail to meet the safety requirements early on in the process, or they prove to have insufficient efficacy. So, this is not the type of investment where you could see a high probability that you will succeed and make a profit. In addition, we are talking about really large amounts, whether for the separate labs and the necessary equipment, then the preclinical experiments, or, most relevantly, the clinical trials themselves. That&rsquo;s why we are speaking of a risky investment.
How long does it actually take to develop a treatment like the one that you are currently preparing for production in Hole&scaron;ovice? Preclinical development usually takes seven to ten years before you get somewhere. This means specialized lab experiments and testing on animal models. The clinical stage &ndash; that is to say, testing on patients &ndash; only follows if you succeed. It usually takes another seven to ten years. Therefore, development takes 15 to 20 years from discovery, the time when a scientist finds something that could theoretically work. There are certain exceptions where things go faster &ndash; and you need a little luck. We bet on both with our BOXR project, in which we see a great potential for the treatment of solid tumors.
How likely is it that the development of such a treatment will not fail during these 15 to 20 years? During clinical development, when patients are included in the studies, you have a roughly five per cent chance that everything will turn out well in the development of a new treatment for cancer, and that you will go through all the prescribed phases without any problems. Even in the last phase of clinical development, there is still a high risk that the product will not even make it to a broad group of patients. There is a more than 60 per cent chance that in the last phase, just before commercialization, you will have been working on something for 15 years but then you will have to stop. &nbsp;And lose the tremendous amount of money invested up to that point.
If I&rsquo;m not mistaken, there is no company comparable to SOTIO on the Czech market? There are some biotech companies that manufacture various products; some even research and develop their own. However, no one else has gotten as far in clinical development as we have.
Is it possible to do what you do here in Hole&scaron;ovice without the enormous capital backing that you are getting from PPF? It&rsquo;s not. Even if you had no labs and outsource a lot of the stuff, which is what some companies do, you could not do it without really huge investments.
What is currently the biggest challenge for you? Is it the pandemic? The pandemic is such a universal excuse when something is not going right these days. The biggest challenge for our manufacturing division is the BOXR project, which is based on modified T lymphocytes coming directly from the patient being treated, called CAR-T cells. We want to achieve what we set out to do and have our first patient in a clinical study at the end of this year. It will most likely be a patient from the US.
First, we will sample their blood in America and transfer it to Prague. Here, we will produce a tailor-made therapy, and if airlines still keep flying, we will transport the preparation back to the clinical center in America. That is currently the biggest challenge for me.
Why will the first patient be from the US? To put it simply, regulatory requirements differ across the world. The process is fastest in America, which is also where our local team is developing BOXR. This is why we are launching our clinical trials there, and we plan on continuing in selected European countries. In this phase of clinical trials, we will first focus on patients suffering from liver carcinoma and lung carcinoma.
What will follow this first clinical phase? The first part of the clinical trials involves some 20 patients. Then we want to get to the point where we have patients with other types of solid tumors as well. We are expecting some 80 to 100 patients.
What makes your product a breakthrough? The treatment method that we are focusing on works very well today for blood cancers, such as various types of leukemia. We are talking primarily pediatric patients here, in whom the results achieved with this technology are truly phenomenal. These treatments actually save patients, prolong their lives, and cure some of them completely. Unfortunately, no one has succeeded yet in using this approach to treat what are known as solid tumors. We believe that the BOXR technology could breach the solid tumor barrier.
Can you say what the costs of such a project are? We know the global statistics on how much the development of such a therapy costs. If we consider it from the time of the scientific discovery up to market launch, then, if everything goes well and all risks are overcome, a successful development project costs about $1 billion. But if you add dozens of failed attempts and dead ends, you will arrive at a cost of about $2.7 billion.
How about return on investment? To put it simply again, everything depends on the achieved efficacy. That determines the subsequent possibilities for bringing the treatment to a broader group of patients and helping them. How prevalent the disease is matters too. For example, a medicine for lung cancer, which is one of the most common diseases, logically has big potential because many people suffer from lung cancer.
You will run the clinical trials in the US and &nbsp;certain European countries, but you will prepare the actual treatments in your Prague labs. How demanding is this for you in terms of logistics? Logistics is a big issue with a highly individualized therapy, since you need to transport each patient&rsquo;s blood across the globe within a precise time limit. We already have extensive experience with this from the development of DCVAC. When we conducted clinical trials for that product, we had to transport the patients&rsquo; blood cells from the US to Prague within 30 hours. And we can do that.
Are you considering building labs in the US in the future? This would be necessary for the commercial production of the preparation, because we will need a much higher capacity to treat patients in America. That being said, we are talking about the future now &ndash; a matter of five to six years. It is not necessary for clinical development and for testing the product&rsquo;s efficacy, however. So, this question is not on the agenda at this time.
In addition to Prague, you also have labs in Beijing. Why there exactly? We have built cell therapy labs in Beijing because there is a high potential for such a treatment there. For example, the most lung cancer patients are in China, whether this is due to air pollution in big cities, and a large proportion of the population are heavy smokers
Regulation in China is so specific that it is virtually impossible to develop and manufacture treatments for the local market anywhere else. So, founding a branch office and investing in labs there, as we did in Prague, made sense for us.
Are you considering the acquisition of another manufacturing business? This is not in our interest now. Our own capacity for clinical trials is sufficient. On the contrary, we are actually talking about how we would like to reduce our investments in operations by starting to manufacture someone else&rsquo;s products at our facilities. That&rsquo;s the way we want to go.

<ul>
 <li>Graduated from the Faculty of Science, Charles University. Worked at the Institute of Molecular Genetics and the Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, specializing in transcriptional regulation and protein synthesis.</li>
 <li>He later joined the Department of Immunology of the Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, where he studied cancer immunology and treatment.</li>
 <li>He has been with SOTIO for ten years. He is currently in charge of its manufacturing division.</li>
</ul>

Luděk Sojka (42)

Author:&nbsp;Adam V&aacute;chal
<a href="https://www.e15.cz/rozhovory/ceske-sotio-pokrocilo-v-boji-proti-rakovine-prvni-pacient-bude-z-usa-rika-sef-vyroby-sojka-1383963">https://www.e15.cz/rozhovory/ceske-sotio-pokrocilo-v-boji-proti-rakovine-prvni-pacient-bude-z-usa-rika-sef-vyroby-sojka-1383963</a>

Sotio’s Chief of Manufacturing Division Luděk Sojka in interview for E15

Zdeněk Majer: We are taking part in several calls for tenders every week

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Škoda Transportation

Besides the parent company in Pilsen, &Scaron;koda Transportation Group also manages several subsidiaries across the Czech Republic, making it a&nbsp;major employer of skilled labor in many of the country&rsquo;s regions.&nbsp;
The company also owns and manages joint ventures and subsidiary labels abroad, including &Scaron;koda Transtech in Finland and other companies in Germany, Russia, and Hungary. &Scaron;koda also celebrated its 160th anniversary last year.&nbsp;

&Scaron;koda Transportation&rsquo;s vehicles are environmentally friendly, run exclusively on electricity, and produce zero emissions. As part of its development strategy, &Scaron;koda Digital was established in July 2019 to develop digital, control, and diagnostic systems for vehicles. Later that year, a&nbsp;new joint venture was formed in Russia with Sinara Group, the current number two on the local rolling stock market.

&Scaron;koda is a&nbsp;major Czech exporter, with as much as 60% of its orders shipped abroad. Its most significant export contracts from the recent past include last year&rsquo;s deal that saw 26 trams bound for the German city of Bonn and 32 modern single-deckers that went to Latvia.&nbsp;
&Scaron;koda Transportation is the new supplier of metro trains worth CZK 8 billion to the city of Warsaw. Closer to home, &Scaron;koda won contracts with Česk&eacute; dr&aacute;hy for the supply and maintenance of electric RegioPanter units. &Scaron;koda and its affiliate Temsa secured a contract to manufacture 14 electrical coaches for DPP, Prague's public transportation company. In 2019, the contract to maintain Prague metro trains (on the A and B lines) was renewed for another 15 years.
&Scaron;koda Transportation Group is continuously investing into research and development. In 2020, its production capacities at Ostrava-based &Scaron;koda Vagonka were significantly extended as it launched the construction of new facilities (called Nov&aacute; Vagonka) costing CZK 1&nbsp;billion. The project will double the production area as well as the number of employees. &nbsp;
In 2020, it signed an agreement for the purchase of Ostrava's Ekova Electric where it plans to build a&nbsp;new competence center and make extensive additional investments. It completed further substantial capital projects in Pilsen and &Scaron;umperk, where it is now hiring over 2,000 new employees.&nbsp;

Hungary

Finland

Poland

Germany

This traditional Czech engineering brand develops and manufactures top-class vehicles for mature urban public transport systems and railways that are exported nearly all over the world. Billions of koruna of investment into production capacities, internal research and development, and digitalization combined with the expertise and experience of thousands of its employees have elevated Pilsen-based &Scaron;koda Transportation to a leading role on the international modern public transportation market.

At all sites where it operates, &Scaron;koda Transportation Group supports education and CSR activities, promotes topics related to transportation and mechanical engineering, and cooperates with technical universities.
&Scaron;koda Transportation Group is a&nbsp;long-term partner to sports clubs in the regions where it operates, such as Pilsen&rsquo;s HC &Scaron;koda Plzeň Extraliga club, the First Hockey League club Draci Pars &Scaron;umperk, Ostrava's football team Ban&iacute;k, and the athletics club &Scaron;koda Plzeň. In Pilsen, it is also the sponsor of the &Scaron;koda Sport Park and the &Scaron;kodaland sports complexes. &Scaron;koda Plzeň also supports the Městsk&aacute; charita Plzeň (a municipal charitable organization), Ovahelp in Ostrava, and many more individuals and organizations.

Supporting Local Communities

Key Financials

"Investing into development and production is the path to next-generation transportation technologies."

When I met &Scaron;koda designers at the Trako trade fair in Poland, they were talking about an upcoming double-deck electric unit, i.e. a kind of successor to the famous CityElefant. When will it come onto the market?
&Scaron;koda wants to focus fully on single-deck suburban trains and also to return to making double-deck trains. The push pull train (made up of carriages and a control car without a propulsion system of its own &ndash; ed.) we presented at Trako forms the basis for the next generation of electric trains. Our aim is to get it onto the market by 2025. Our targets include reducing the weight and increasing the capacity.
In the railway area you are currently focusing on suburban trains. What about long-distance transport? Do you want to enter that area?
Of course we would like to get into long-distance transport as well, but as things stand we lack the resources. We do not have the engineering capacity. Therefore, we will work on improving existing products in the suburban and regional transport area. A number of projects are already coming up in that area &ndash; we want to launch a battery-powered electric train and also a hydrogen-powered train.
But does long-distance transport have a place in &Scaron;koda&rsquo;s long-term strategy? Or do you want to stick with suburban transport?
We have a strategic planning period that runs up to 2026 and the main aim is to consolidate our portfolio in regional and suburban transport.
In the area of buses and trolleybuses, how is your collaboration progressing with the Turkish firm Temsa, in which your owner PPF acquired a 50% stake last year? Will it continue to be just one of your suppliers or do you want to take the collaboration further?
We wanted to own a vehicle manufacturer so that we could plan product development and market launches together within a clearly defined timeframe. This is fundamentally different from purchasing a component or even an entire vehicle body from someone (&Scaron;koda produces trolleybuses using bodywork from the Polish firm Solaris and the Czech firm SOR &ndash; ed.).
We want to step up our involvement in electric buses and hydrogen buses considerably. This will include traditional trolleybuses based on Temsa bodies. Thanks to Temsa, we have huge production capacity either for complete vehicles or for vehicle bodies in Turkey.
How big is the market for electric buses, in which you could become a leading player?
The acquisition of Temsa has given us an almost complete product range in the bus area &ndash; from diesels to CNG to electric buses. Therefore, the market is limited only territorially for us &ndash; so if we wanted to launch in Scandinavia, for example, we would have to make changes to our vehicles to match what is expected in Scandinavian countries.
Let&rsquo;s consider the Czech Republic. The market leader in terms of buses sold is SOR, followed by Iveco. Do you have ambitions to catch up?
Of course. The products we have today are comparable with these manufacturers. It is a matter of individual calls for tenders and the carriers who make the investment decisions. Entering a market naturally has costs, but we are prepared for that.
How many calls for tenders are you currently participating in?
Lots. At group level there are several calls for tenders every week. In the past it tended to be several calls for tenders a month.
Are there markets where you want to boost your presence significantly?
Our core markets today are the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Finland. Germany is very important, of course, and we have grown our share in the Baltic states. We are also focusing on the Balkans, where we see enormous potential.
What about Italy? The government is supposed to be encouraging Czech exports to Italy, not least because of the planned public procurement moves there. How do you plan to make the most of that?
Italy is also of interest to us. Nonetheless, we have limited resources at the moment. We have full order books for the next three years.
How about acquisitions? How are the talks progressing with Alstom over the purchase of the plant in France?
We are in talks. I cannot say more at this point.
And are you working on any other acquisitions?
No comment.
*****
Author: Michal Bou&scaron;ka
Date of issue: 26. 9. 2021
Link to the article:&nbsp;
<a href="https://archiv.hn.cz/c1-66978980-nastupce-cityelefantu-chceme-dostat-na-trh-v-roce-2025-zakazky-mame-na-tri-roky-dopredu-rika-majer-ze-skody-transportation">https://archiv.hn.cz/c1-66978980-nastupce-cityelefantu-chceme-dostat-na-trh-v-roce-2025-zakazky-mame-na-tri-roky-dopredu-rika-majer-ze-skody-transportation</a>

Škoda Transportation’s Vice President for Sales in interview for Hospodářské noviny daily

Ladislav Bartoníček: Every business has its rules and logic

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PPF Group

Forbes's Interview of PPF Group CEO and Shareholder

Didier Stoessel: If you do not try, you do not succeed. Sometimes you fail when you try, but at least it is great to try and succeed.

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First, could you please share with us a couple of words on who is Didier Stoessel? I am a Frenchman, half of my career is in the finance world, I was a banker in New York and London. The other half, I am an entrepreneur in media, technologies and digital businesses, so that is me in three words.
You have been appointed CEO CME in October 2020; can you please tell us what your key conclusions in after this period are, what are your key priorities for the future? As you know, I worked for and with PPF, when it acquired CME in October 2020. I knew PPF for a long time, when they asked me to take care of a certain number of countries of CME, including Romania. I was very happy because, this is a fantastic group with great assets, whether in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania obviously. Those are the three biggest markets that we have. What did I find when I started? I would say it was a bit sleepy as a group because, when they tried to sell it for a few years, and when you try to sell, people are sort of nice, but not a lot is happening, because you&rsquo;re just waiting for the next owner. So when we arrived, I said to them, first think to do, let us bring new energy, let us bring new entrepreneurship and we need to try. If you do not try, you do not succeed. Sometimes you fail when you try, but at least it is great to try and succeed. So that&rsquo;s the first thing. Let us be entrepreneurial, and let us bring even more energy in being in the group. The next think that I have told them, was look, we will reinvest. You saw the grid today. You know if you compare with last year, now, every day, from 5 &ndash; 6 o&rsquo;clock to 12 o&rsquo;clock, it&rsquo;s full of original production. Whether it&rsquo;s the news, whether it&rsquo;s all the shows, late news at 11:30. It is the best grid as Alex said, that they had in 7 or 8 years, with new productions, new shows, from beginning to end. So that was the second thing, to reinvest. And the third thing I told them, was digital, digital, digital. So this is great, what we need to do, we need to do great, but we also need to transform PRO TV from a TV to a digital organization, that has a TV but that has also many, many other ways to show its content.
There is a whole theory that television is on a safe path to death, the consumption habit of the new generations changing rapidly. What is your perspective on the subject? I do not think so. You know, it is what most people in the world say, but they do not say television, they say linear television. Therefore, linear television is passing viewing, where you do not have the choice, of what you watch, you do not have the choice how you want to watch it, you don&rsquo;t have the choice when you want to watch it. So that sort of passive viewing is still very strong in Romania. As you know, in Romania the average viewer spends 5 h and 45 mins, in front of the screen. That is a lot of time. If you look at the rest of Europe, its 3 h and 40 mins, so Romania, in terms of viewing of linear TV will go down, we know that. However, we are not a linear TV only. We are a content producer. Everything you have seen is fantastic content. If you look everywhere in the world, linear TV, goes down, but the total amount of content consumption goes up. So people watch maybe one hour less of linear TV but they watch one hour more of video on demand. They watch other ways of watching content. Therefore, what we want to do is to make sure that we are getting stronger and stronger in it. Huge investments, we are ready to make them but this will mean that the industry will continue to grow.
About the audience of television, do you believe it&rsquo;s the same as online audience? As you know there are differences, you know it because you are in the online businesses. It is slightly younger online than it is in television. We all know that. What I am saying is what you produce, even in your business you that compared to 5 years ago you have a lot more people now able to see it. So digital opens new possibilities for people to enjoy your content. And that&rsquo;s exactly what we want to do. Which means, if people miss it on PRO TV, we want them to be able to catch-up whatever they missed on other digital means , whether it&rsquo;s video on demand, whether it&rsquo;s other type of delayed viewing
What role does digital play in CME and in PRO TV? If I tell you what we are doing in Czech Republic and now in Slovakia, we have relaunched 8 month ago, Voyo. In this period we growth from few tens of thousands, 150 K subscribers. The pandemic obviously played a role, but what has played a role as well is that we have added a lot of new content. SVOD, whether you go on Netflix, HBO GO etc, etc, is a way to consume content, which is less passive than linear television. We have also introduced a lot of choice. People could choose what they wanted to watch. We want to do the same in CME. First, we started with Czech Republic and Slovakia, the next market is Romania. We will basically launch in Romania digital advanced products for people to be able to watch all their content, plus a lot of new one in the local market.
Considering your role and experience with various audiences, how would you define Romanian audience? What are the similarities and the differences? You know, I&rsquo;m a Frenchman so I come from a Latin country. You are also a Latin country. If I compare it with Czech Republic who is very close to Germany, it&rsquo;s very different. You could see it on the screen. We have many emotions here, lot of humour, smiles, which is what I enjoy, considering where I come from. That is how I would describe it: great audience, enjoying great emotions, humour and great quality products. That is what we are trying to do every single day. You should see, just as Alex said, all these productions. I was watching Vlad for example, the teaser&hellip;and you see how much better it is , and that again, I was mentioning investments, what we&rsquo;ve done is in every production, we said OK, it is the same production, but let&rsquo;s invest more so that we increase the quality. So if people would watch Vlad on PRO or if they would watch a series on HBO GO or Netflix, they say, the quality is great, cinema like.

Ladislav Bartoníček: Investments are part of our DNA

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In April this year, Ladislav Barton&iacute;ček took over the management of the largest Czech business group PPF, following the tragic death of Petr Kellner, the head of the company and the richest businessman in the Czech Republic.&nbsp;In an interview he gave in the days, immediately following Kellner's death and after taking over the management of PPF, Barton&iacute;ček said: "I have lost a friend and found myself in a whirlwind of events that none of us could have imagined.&nbsp;Everything is very emotional and demanding.&nbsp;The biggest challenge is to make sure that no one drops the ball, which basically means to ensure that everyone continues working at full speed on ongoing projects.&ldquo; Although his ownership stake in PPF is only 0.535 percent, Barton&iacute;ček, being Petr Kellner's closest associate and a friend, and based on an earlier agreement for such situations, after Kellner's death, was appointed to head the company that employs almost 100,000 people, operates in&nbsp; 25 countries and its assets are nearly 40 billion euros.&nbsp;Our interview for NIN opens with a question how satisfied he is with the group&rsquo;s operations as its CEO, given the circumstances, and in particular, in the light of the ongoing pandemic.
How did you do last year and do the results in the first half of this year indicate a recovery or not? The last year, the last 18 months or so actually were difficult for everyone and our group has also, to a certain extent, suffered a negative impact, brought about by the pandemic. The results were somewhat lower than expected, but what helped us in the situation is the fact that we are diversified in terms of our businesses, the industries that we invest in, but also in terms of the geographic scope and reach. Our financial services sector suffered the greatest negative impact, especially the consumer finance, particularly in China and South-East Asia. On the other hand, our other industries, such as telecommunications, the media and real estate did reasonably well... And for instance, our biotechnology was not affected.
Does that mean that you are satisfied and what do the results for 2021 show?&nbsp;How much has Covid changed the way you do business and has it reflected in all segments? Given the circumstances, we certainly must be satisfied. This year our results have surely improved. Whentalking about the changes, structurally and in terms of management, things have remained stable, but we have moved much more into operating digitally, automating our processes and working from home, just like of the most businesses worldwide.

I have given up trying to predict and understand how the pandemic situation will further develop. So many predictions by so many smart people, and they were completely wrong. I am not worried, since we have proven that we are able to cope with difficult situations. 

Are these changes here to stay or are they temporary perhaps? Are the post-Covid operations going to be different? As for digitalization, these changes are here to stay.&nbsp;But, for example, the work from home, which was a necessity during the pandemic, is neither a good nor a healthy solution for people in the long run. The isolation isn&rsquo;t natural.&nbsp;That&rsquo;s why we have undertaken all measures necessary to get as many people as possible back to the office.&nbsp;On the other hand, there are certain business segments, and in particular the telecommunications sector, where work from home has proven to be a good solution.&nbsp;For example, people working in call centers (sales and support), have learned how to do their work from home. We also taught and trained our salespeople in physical stores how to handle tele-sales activities.&nbsp;Thus, we managed to build their capacities and increase the span of their job, but we also helped them master some additional skills.
PPF Group is recognizable in Serbia as the owner of Telenor. Can you tell us what else, besides the telecommunications companies, do you have in your portfolio? In addition to the telecommunications companies, we are active in in the sectors of media, financial services, banking, biotechnology, transportation, real estate, e-commerce, and we are slowly investing in some smaller yet new business segments. As for the geographical areas in which we are present, in addition to Europe, we also run our operations in Asia and Southeast Asia and the United States.
The pandemic is not over yet and the business world is in an obvious fear of the uncertainty that it is faced with. What are your investment plans, given this uncertainty? I have given up trying to predict and understand how the pandemic situation will further develop. So many predictions by so many smart people, and they were completely wrong. It is therefore best not to predict. As a group, we have proven that we are able to cope with difficult situations, and in that sense, I am not worried or concerned. Therefore, we will continue investing, looking into new opportunities, and these may be an addition to the existing businesses, but also, something completely new.
What is it that you are not going to tell us? I can only tell you that investing and researching new business opportunities is in our DNA, but it is way too early to talk about specific projects. As for the areas in which we are present, we have no immediate intention of expanding into new markets, but as far as business is concerned, we will certainly continue to invest, even in some new business segments. We have recently partnered up with the Beneteau company, the world's largest producer of holiday sailboats and we invest in sailboat chartering. This business has suffered great damage due to the Covid crisis, but we believe that long term, this is an attractive business. This joint venture will be number one in the industry, in terms of sales, with a pre-Covid annual revenue of around EUR 1 billion.

We are extremely happy, both with Telenor and Cetin as well, and the overall business climate in Serbia, and we intend to stay here, and even seek new products and services. However, I cannot say that I have 5 projects in my pocket, just waiting to be signed. The PPF group has media and TV in its portfolio in other countries, and for the time being, this is not what we are planning for Serbia. 

As the pandemic subsides, the world is in fear of inflation, as well as of growing debts, both public and private, and even the growing number of enterprises faced with bankruptcy? What is your view of this? As for PPF and our operations, and primarily owing to the diversification and ability to adapt to the new circumstances, we have no concerns. With such a diversified business, and presence in various industries, and various parts of the world, the inflation then reflects differently, given that it depends on the country itself, its macroeconomic situation, but also on the industries as well.
And as for the global macroeconomic situation, in the years to come, or rather the fear of inflation and the level of debts, there are different schools in macroeconomy, providing different forecasts and predictions. It is far from certain that the world will face a sustained period of inflation. I rather believe that while higher inflation rates&nbsp; are going require short-term adapting, and soon after that will again see a return of low inflation rates.&nbsp;

This region is our home as 60% of the PPF’s equity is currently in this region, and we will continue to grow here, in terms of new investments. We are currently negotiating with Alstom company the acquisition of one of their factories in Germany, and one in France to complement the portfolio of our transportation systems, i.e., the train production segment and other transportation means.

What are further plans for the CEE region?&nbsp; Given the equity invested in this region, and which amounts to 60% of the PPF&rsquo;s equity, this region is our home, and we will continue to grow here, in terms of new investments. We are currently negotiating with Alstom company the acquisition of one of their factories in Germany, and one in France to complement the portfolio of our transportation systems, i.e., the train production segment and other transportation means.&nbsp;
What about Serbia? Are you perhaps planning business expansion here as well, be it the existing one, or a new one?&nbsp; In Serbia, we are in a research stage. We are extremely happy, both with Telenor and Cetin as well, and the overall business climate in Serbia, and we intend to stay here, and even seek new products and services. However, I cannot say that I have 5 projects in my pocket, just waiting to be signed. We shall see. We have also established the Cetin company, thus separating the infrastructure from the traditional telecommunication services, and we have done this not only in Serbia, but in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria as well. We are talking about a large venture, with EBITDA more than EUR 500 million, which aims at further infrastructure and 5G rollout. And not only for the needs of our own telecommunication companies, but for the needs of the market and other clients as well.&nbsp;
A few months ago, Telenor Serbia concluded a deal with the state-owned Telecom on the distribution of media content, thus practically entering this market segment as well. Is it, perhaps, a plan to enter the media business in the future and produce the content yourself? Not necessarily. The PPF group has media and TV in its portfolio in other countries, and for the time being, this is not what we are planning for Serbia.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s been three years since PPF bought the Norwegian Telenor in this region. When are you planning to change the company&rsquo;s name?&nbsp; At the end of the year we will decide whether and when are we to change the name.&nbsp;

Interview for NIN (Serbia)

Czech students bound for 43 universities in 10 countries with support from The Kellner Family Foundation 

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The grantees have elected to study at the likes of the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Rochester Institute of Technology, and other institutions in the UK, the US, Austria, the Netherlands, China, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and the Czech Republic. In the space of 12 years, 215 students fresh out of secondary schools across the Czech Republic have received funding from the Foundation to cover tuition fees and other costs associated with their university studies. In that time, The Kellner Family Foundation has disbursed more than CZK 100 million in university grants, enabling Czech students to deepen their understanding of their fields of study while gaining international experience and a global outlook that will contribute to the advancement of Czech society.
<ul>
 <li>There are 54&nbsp;grantees in the Foundation&rsquo;s Universities project in the 2021/2022 academic year.</li>
 <li>The Foundation also continues to support Open Gate Grammar School&rsquo;s former students who received need-based scholarships during their secondary school studies. Of this year&rsquo;s cohort of 54 grantees, 12 are graduates of Open Gate.</li>
 <li>Over the 12 years that the Foundation has supported Czech undergraduates, especially those at universities abroad, there have been 215 grantees.</li>
</ul>
In the 2021/22 academic year, 54 students will receive financial support. For 22 of them, this is the first year that they are receiving support under the scheme (up a full third compared to those newly admitted in previous years). A further 14 are drawing on grants for a second year, and 18 have been benefiting from the Foundation&rsquo;s support for three or more years.
Clustered geographically, the grantees are mainly students from Prague (14), Central Bohemia (12), and Moravia Silesia (8). Others come from the regions of &Uacute;st&iacute; nad Labem (6), Zl&iacute;n (6), Olomouc (2), and South Moravia (2). Finally, there is one apiece from the Pardubice, Liberec, South Bohemian, and Karlovy Vary regions. 
This year, 30 students will be attending universities in the UK. Others are off to the US, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, China, Ireland and Spain. The Foundation has awarded support to four students who will be studying in the Czech Republic. Three of these are Open Gate alumni who benefited from need-based scholarship when they were enrolled at the school. One student is to start studying at the Prague branch of a foreign university. &ldquo;It is entirely up to the students what field of study they choose to pursue. However, when selecting grantees, we do put a premium on subjects that can prove complicated to study in the Czech Republic or that do not have a strong reputation here. Then there are certain interdisciplinary fields of study that Czech universities do not even offer as a package,&rdquo; explains Petra Dobe&scaron;ov&aacute;, a trustee at The Kellner Family Foundation who also sits on the panel responsible for reviewing grant applications. &ldquo;The Foundation&rsquo;s abiding vision is to transform society through quality education, so we quite naturally consider how a particular field of study can be put to use in the future in the Czech Republic and how it can benefit Czech society,&rdquo; she adds.

The Kellner Family Foundation

Geographical preferences tempered by Brexit and the pandemic
The fields studied by Universities grantees have proved to be durably stable. They tend to be technical subjects and computer science, closely followed by natural sciences, humanities and social sciences. Other fields studied by grantees include economics, management, medicine, pharmacy, arts, and law.
Selecting who would be awarded a grant was very challenging. Having received more than 100 applications, the Foundation invited 33 students for face-to-face interviews. In awarding the grants, it singled out those who had demonstrated high academic prowess and true passion for their field of study through their accomplishments to date and their engagement in activities significantly broadening their range of knowledge in secondary education. In this respect, for example, candidates could point to projects designed specifically for secondary school students who look beyond the school curriculum, including the Academy of Science&rsquo;s Open Science scheme, the Centre for Talented Minds, and the Secondary School Vocational Activities Programme.&nbsp;
Some grantees are studying at the UK&rsquo;s top universities, having chosen mathematics, physics, and medicine at the University of Oxford, and natural sciences, archaeology, economics, and technology at the University of Cambridge. Others are pursuing biochemistry at Imperial College London, computer science at ETH Z&uuml;rich, and physics at the &Eacute;cole polytechnique f&eacute;d&eacute;rale de Lausanne and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Then there are students of music at famed universities in Vienna and Germany. In one intriguing case, a grantee caught the contemporary-circus bug and is studying at the third best circus school in the world &ndash; the Dutch Academy for Circus and Performance Art.
The global COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainty surrounding travel opportunities got in the way of some students&rsquo; plans. In the circumstances, they reconsidered their original idea of studying in the US and opted instead for a closer, European university.&nbsp;
Another aspect reshaping the grantees&rsquo; geographical preferences is the UK&rsquo;s departure from the European Union. &ldquo;The latest influx of grantees proved to be less interested in universities in the UK, where the cost of study has skyrocketed since Brexit. By contrast, we have registered a keener interest in the Netherlands, which offers a comparatively wide range of courses in English. Universities elsewhere in Europe are also attracting attention,&rdquo; says Petra Dobe&scaron;ov&aacute;.

List of Universities

List of universities where Czech students will be studying with The Kellner Family Foundation&rsquo;s support in the 2021/2022 academic year

The Czech Republic can be really proud of the quality of its oncological care.