Petr Kellner was a Czech billionaire businessman. He was the richest person in the Czech Republic, founder and majority shareholder (98.93 %) of the PPF Group. At the time of his death, he had an estimated net worth of $17.5 billion.

Early life

Kellner was born in 1964 in Česká Lípa, then in Czechoslovakia, but spent most of his childhood in Liberec.

Kellner graduated from the University of Economics, Prague Faculty of Industrial Economics, in 1986.

Career

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.

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.

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.

In 2007, PPF Group signed a contract with Assicurazioni Generali to create a joint venture between PPF Group's insurance arm and Assicurazioni Generali's corporations in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. According to sources PPF Group will own 49% of that company from the start, and Generali will pay €1.1 billion to the PPF Group for its stake. From 2007 till 2013 Kellner was member of the Board of Directors of Generali.

Kellner himself later bought 2.02% stake in Assicurazioni Generali.

In 2013 Kellner's PPF sold their remaining shares in the Generali PPF Holding (GPH) to Generali for €2.5 billion, who became sole owner effective at year end of 2014.

In early September 2007, Ronald Lauder announced that Kellner held a 3% stake and was on the board of directors of Central European Media Enterprises.

Wealth

As of 2013, Kellner owned 98.93% of the PPF investment and financial group.

In 2006, Forbes list of billionaires estimated PPF's net worth at US$3 billion and listed Kellner as 224th wealthiest man in the world.

 In 2007, he was 119th with US$6 billion; in 2008 he was 91st with US$9.3 billion.

In 2009 he was 76th with US$6 billion.

In 2010 he was 89th with US$7.6 billion; according to the Czech weekly Týden, the estimates were lower, however, approx. US$4 billion.

In 2015, Kellner ranked #137 on the Forbes list with an estimated wealth of US$9.2 billion (2015).

 In August 2016, he ranked #102 with US$11.4 billion, making him the wealthiest person in the Czech Republic.

 In 2018, Kellner ranked #88, with US$15.5 billion.

In 2010 he bought a Boeing 737-700 BBJ1 as his business airplane.

 He lived in an extensive residence in the village of Podkozí near Prague, and owned a number of other real estates in various countries. He also owned one of the largest collections of photographs taken by Josef Sudek.

Death

Kellner died on 27 March 2021 in a Airbus AS350 B3 helicopter crash, while heliskiing in Alaska's backcountry, 50 miles (80 km) east of Anchorage, along with four other people