By Leos Rousek
PRAGUE--Czech investment company PPF Group Tuesday said it has
completed the buyout of a majority stake in the Czech unit of
Spain's Telefonica SA (TEF) worth 2.46 billion euros ($3.3
billion), following an approval of the transaction by the European
Commission's anti-trust authorities earlier in January.
PPF Group and Telefonica first unveiled their agreement on the
transaction in early November. The Czech company has agreed to pay
EUR2.06 billion for a 65.9% stake in Telefonica Czech Republic AS
(BAATELEC.PR)--the country's top telecommunications
operator--outright and an additional EUR404 million over the
following four years.
The Spanish company will retain a 4.9% stake in the Czech
company, which also operates in neighboring Slovakia. Telefonica
may sell its remaining stake in its Czech and Slovak units to PPF
Group after the four-year period, the two companies said.
PPF Group is majority owned by Czech business tycoon Petr
Kellner, who has an estimated net worth of $10.4 billion, according
to Forbes magazine which last year ranked him 106th on its list of
the world's billionaires.
PPF Group is finalizing its mandatory buyout offer for the
remaining minority shareholders of Telefonica Czech, which is
traded on the Prague stock exchange.
"Until the approval of our offer document by [Czech regulators]
PPF Group won't make any further comments about Telefonica
[Czech/Slovakia]," PPF Group spokesman Radek Stavel said in a
statement.
PPF Group's takeover of Telefonica Czech is the company's
largest investment on the local market after years of expansion in
other sectors and territories outside Central and Eastern Europe.
The company operates in consumer finance and real estate in Russia,
Kazakhstan, China, Vietnam, India, Indonesia and Philippines.
Mr. Kellner has sought to branch out into telecommunications
following a recent sale of PPF Group's Eastern European insurance
operations to Italy's insurer Assicurazioni Generali SpA
(G.MI).
Write to Leos Rousek at leos.rousek@wsj.com
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