PPF Group announces that its fully-owned subsidiaries have signed an agreement with Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. to acquire Central European Media Enterprises  (CME).

CME has announced that the cash transaction is valued at approximately 2.1 billion US dollars.

CME operates television stations in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

Petr Kellner commented on the transaction: “The acquisition of CME with its media assets in five European countries will complement and further strengthen our telecommunications operations in Central and Eastern Europe. We want to leverage the natural synergies between the creation of content and its distribution with the objective of further developing our telecommunications and media businesses. CME is a healthy and well-run organization and we do not intend to make any significant changes to its operations.”

Kellner’s PPF owns assets ranging from lenders to real estate and telecommunications in Europe and Asia, including Czech telecom operator O2 Czech Republic and global consumer lender Home Credit.

About PPF Group
PPF Group invests in multiple market segments such as financial services, telecommunications, biotechnology, real estate and mechanical engineering. The reach of PPF Group spans from Europe to North America and across Asia. PPF Group owns assets exceeding EUR 45 billion (as of December 2018).

About CME
CME is a media and entertainment company operating leading businesses in five Central and Eastern European markets with an aggregate population of approximately 45 million people. CME’s operations broadcast 30 television channels in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic (Nova, Nova 2, Nova Cinema, Nova Sport 1, Nova Sport 2, Nova International, Nova Action and Nova Gold), Romania, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia.

The richest Czech remains the owner of PPF investment group, Petr Kellner, with an estimated property worth 350 billion crowns.

Prime Minister and ANO CEO, Andrej Babiš, fell from second to fourth, his assets decreased by five billion crowns compared to last year. Babiš shifted his position with real estate investor, Radovan Vítek, who increased on 15 billion, bringing him to the second place.

The third is the owner of KKCG, Karel Komárek, who controls Sazka. The ranking was published today on Forbes website. The total assets of entrepreneurs who have worked their way up to the 100th ranking sum 1.2 trillion crowns.

The stakeholder Zdeněk Bakala dropped out of the top ten and was replaced by financier Jiří Šmejc, who is a minority shareholder of Home Credit installment and assets on the Croatian SuperSport. This year’s Forbes rankings have increased by 20 new names. A significant part of them are businessmen who started from scratch and at the beginning of their assets stood modern technology.

Among them Martin Hájek, the chief and owner of Livesport, which provides the fastest sports results worldwide. Forbes estimated his assets at 8.5 billion crowns and ranked him 24th.

Oliver Dlouhý, the founder of Kiwi.com, a ticket search website with assets of CZK 1.5 billion, also entered the ranking for the first time, as well as the founder of the Czech web hosting and CDN service Zdeněk Cendra (CZK 1.8 billion) or founder of the ePojištění.cz, Jan Barta (CZK 1.5 billion).

According to Forbes, Babiš’s equity is predominantly based on the Agrofert holding, and he has been falling in the ranking for the second year due to increasingly poor business results, especially chemical plants producing industrial fertilizers. “Agrofert is in two trust funds, but Andrej Babiš remains a recipient of the benefits resulting from them, which is why we still rank him in the ranking,” Forbes said.

According to Forbes, the richest woman in the Czech Republic is Jitka Cechlová Komárková, who, with a property worth CZK 4.8 billion, took the 50th place. Most of her assets were acquired in the past when dividing the KKCG holding of the Komárek family. The second richest Czech woman is the founder of SIKO, Jaroslava Valová, with three billion and in 75th place, and co-owner of the transport company ICOM, Kateřina Kratochvílová, in the 76th place.

Ranking of the richest Czechs by Forbes magazine (TOP 10):