Petr Kellner (born 20 May 1964) is a Czech businessman. He is currently estimated to have a net worth of $11.4 billion according to Forbes list of billionaires, making him the wealthiest person in the Czech Republic and the 102nd richest person in the world as of 10 August 2016. In March 2016, his net worth was $10.9 billion.
Studies and beginning of business career
Petr Kellner graduated from the University of Economics, Prague Faculty of Industrial Economics, in 1986. After the Velvet Revolution he worked for the Czech company Impromat, an importer and seller of Ricoh photocopiers. While working for that company, he met Milan Maděryč and Milan Vinkler.
Investment fund PPF
In 1991, after the announcement of Czechoslovak voucher privatization, he founded the investment fund PPF (První privatizační fond) with Milan Vinkler and state-owned glassworks Sklo Union. In 1992, PPF investiční společnost a.s. was established and the funds’ names were changed from privatisation to investment. The funds were very successful and purchased stock of more than 200 corporations with nominal value 5 billion CZK.
Česká pojišťovna
In 1995 and 1996, PPF bought a 20% stake in the largest Czech insurance company, Česká pojišťovna and started to manage it. In 2000, PPF bought 31.5% stake of Česká pojišťovna from IPB for 2.85 billion CZK . The transaction with IPB ended up with IPB paying to PPF 1.6 billion CZK penalty, making the real purchasing cost of the stake 1.25 billion CZK. Later PPF acquired more shares and became the dominant (93%) owner in 2001, when PPF bought large stakes of shares from Komerční banka and the Czech state. With help of these profitable transactions, the last investors from voucher privatization were bought out and Petr Kellner became the dominant owner of PPF group.
Petr Kellner net worth: Petr Kellner is a Czech businessman who has a net worth of $11.5 billion dollars. Petr Kellner was born in Ceska Lipa, Czechoslovakia in May 1964. He graduated from the University of Economics, Prague in 1986. He started his career working for Impromat, which importer and sold Ricoh photocopiers. In 1991 Kellner co-founded the investment fund PPF. The funds purchased stock in over 200 corporations and was valued at more than 5 billion CZK. PPF became the dominant owner of the largest Czech insurance company in 2001. PPF signed a contract with Assicurazioni Generali in 2007 to create a joint venture in several countries. Generali paid $1.1 billion pounds to the PPF Group. Kellner became a member of the Board of Directors of Generali and owns just over 2% of the company. Kellner has owned a Gulfstream G500 airplane and bought a Boeing 737-700BBJ in 2010. He owns an island resort in the British Virgin Islands. Kellner has been listed by Forbes as the wealthiest person in the Czech Republic. Peter is married to Renata Kellnerova and has four children. He was previously married to Iva Kellnerova.
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