Petr Kellner

In 1991, after the announcement of Czechoslovak voucher privatization, he founded the investment fund PPF (První Privatizační Fond: First Privatization Fund)[8] 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 privatization to investment. The funds were very successful and purchased stock of more than 200 corporations with nominal value 5 billion CZK.[7]

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 (around $72.27 million at the time) .[9][10] The transaction with IPB ended up with IPB paying to PPF 1.6 billion CZK (around $40.93 million at the time) penalty, making the real purchasing cost of the stake 1.25 billion CZK (around $31.98 million at the time).[11] 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.[12] With help of these profitable transactions, the last investors from voucher privatization were bought out and Kellner became the dominant owner of PPF Group.[7]

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 (around $1.29 billion at the time) to the PPF Group for its stake. From 2007 till 2013 Kellner was member of the board of directors of Generali.[13] Kellner himself later bought 2.02% stake in Assicurazioni Generali.[14]

In 2013 Kellner's PPF sold their remaining shares in the Generali PPF Holding (GPH) to Generali for €2.5 billion (around $3.32 billion at the time), who became sole owner effective in early 2015.[15][16]

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.[17] In 2019 PPF Group acquired whole CME.

In 2013, Kellner purchased the Hotel Praha, a luxury hotel in the Dejvice section of Prague that had been built under Communist rule. Kellner demolished the hotel in 2014 and sought to turn the land into a campus of Open Gate, an elite private school he had founded.[18] The school was never built.

PPF Group has often operated in state-regulated business (insurance, banking, telecommunications), so intermingling with the politics was inherent. Three politicians are clearly linked to Kellner.[5] The first is Václav Klaus, firstly the Czechoslovak Minister of Finance during times of voucher privatization, later Prime Minister and Czech president. After he retired from active politics in 2013, his Václav Klaus' Institute was funded by PPF banka from PPF Group.[5][19] The second is Ivan Kočárník, who served as Czech Minister of Finance from 1992 to 1997, during the privatization of Česká pojišt'ovna into the hands of PPF Group.[5][19] After he retired from active politics in 1997 he was a member of the board of directors from 1997 to 2000 of Česká pojišt'ovna and a member of its supervisory board from 2000 to 2007.[20] The third is Kellner's top lobbyist Vladimír Mlynář,[5] the first Czech Minister of Informatics, who works for PPF Group since 2010.[21]