Photocopier Salesman
Born in 1964 in what was then Czechoslovakia, Kellner studied economics and worked as a salesman for Ricoh photocopiers shortly after the Communist Party fell in the 1989 Velvet Revolution. His life changed when the newly capitalist state started selling assets by handing out vouchers exchangeable for shares in companies. Kellner took advantage of it with some partners and set up a fund in 1991 that acquired stakes in 202 firms. That later became PPF.
The firm’s operations now span finance, telecom, manufacturing, media and biotech. Its Home Credit, started in 1997, is one of the largest consumer lenders in central and eastern Europe and has expanded into countries including China, India and Indonesia. Kellner’s business in China has sparked some controversy at home as the domestic intelligence agency include the Asian country among the biggest national security threats
After falling to a low of $8.6 billion last May at the outset of the pandemic, his fortune surged amid a rebound in banking and rising telecom stocks. With his wife Renata, he had founded the Kellner Family Foundation, which donates to educational, cultural and health causes.
“Above all, he was very, very family-bound,” Duvieusart said. “He spent a lot of time with his family and he loved each of his kids.”
The transfer of Kellner’s wealth could be made easier by the fact that his wide business network operating in different industries and regions is all united under the holding structure of PPF, according to PWC Legal’s Kinc.
“The handling of such great inheritance doesn’t have to be much different to handling a case of some mid-sized businessman who had a company abroad, and a few villas in Spain or Florida,” Kincl said.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.