How Renáta built the fortune
The fortune now held by Renáta Kellnerová and her children was built by her husband, Petr Kellner, who founded PPF in the early 1990s. PPF began as an investment fund in Czechoslovakia's voucher privatization, the programme through which citizens received coupons to buy shares in state companies. Kellner used the fund to acquire a stake in Česká pojišťovna, the country's largest insurer, and over the following two decades turned PPF into one of the biggest private investment groups in Central and Eastern Europe.
The most profitable venture was Home Credit, a consumer lending business that started in the Czech Republic and expanded to Russia, Kazakhstan, China, India, Southeast Asia and other markets. PPF also bought telecom operators, including the Czech incumbent now known as O2 Czech Republic and businesses in Hungary, Bulgaria and Serbia, and built a real estate portfolio across Europe. In 2008 PPF combined its insurance operations with those of the Italian insurer Generali in a joint venture, and it later sold its share to Generali, freeing capital for further expansion.
Petr Kellner died in a helicopter crash in Alaska in March 2021. Under arrangements he had made, Renáta Kellnerová became the main owner of the group, with a small share going to their children. Since then she has overseen a period in which PPF has sold some major assets, shrunk Home Credit's exposure to riskier markets and rearranged its portfolio, while professional managers run the companies.
The shift after 2021 reflected both the loss of the founder and a changing environment. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 made the group's Russian assets a liability, and PPF moved to exit them. At the same time, the long running strategy of buying telecom and media businesses in Central and Eastern Europe matured into sales and partnerships that turned part of the portfolio into cash and minority stakes. The result is a group that is still diversified but more concentrated in Europe than it was a decade ago.
Companies and holdings
PPF is headquartered in Amsterdam and has operations in many countries. Its main areas of activity include:
- Telecommunications, where PPF sold a controlling stake in PPF Telecom, its operators in Central and Eastern Europe, to the UAE group e& in a deal completed in 2024, while keeping a substantial minority.
- Financial services, including Home Credit and a stake in the Czech lender Moneta Money Bank.
- Media, through Central European Media Enterprises, which owns television channels such as TV Nova in the Czech Republic, and a stake in the German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1.
- Engineering, through Škoda Group, the maker of trains, trams and electric buses based in Plzeň.
- Real estate and other investments in Europe.
The group also holds investments in biotechnology and venture capital. Its management board is led by long time executives of PPF, and the Kellner family is represented on the governance bodies that oversee the holdings.
Early life and career
Renáta Kellnerová was born in 1967 in Czechoslovakia. Public information about her early years is limited. She married Petr Kellner, and the couple had four children. While her husband built PPF, she was involved mainly in the family's philanthropic projects rather than in managing the business.
After her husband's death she took on the role of principal owner and became a member of PPF's governing structures, working with the management team her husband had assembled. She has continued to keep a low public profile, with the group's chief executives and spokespeople handling most public communication about its strategy and transactions.
Her approach to the group has been described as that of a long term owner rather than an active dealmaker. Major decisions, such as the telecom sale, have been presented publicly by PPF's executives, while she has focused on governance and on the continuity of the family's holdings.
Philanthropy and public life
Philanthropy is the area in which Kellnerová has been most visible. She and her husband founded the Educa Foundation, which supports education projects, and the Open Gate boarding school and grammar school near Prague, which provides scholarships for gifted children from difficult family backgrounds. Through the foundation the family has funded programmes for teachers, school leadership and access to education, and it has supported work by universities and charities in the Czech Republic.
She is also linked to equestrian sport, and her daughter Anna Kellnerová is an international show jumper. Kellnerová rarely gives interviews and tends to appear in public mainly at foundation events. Media coverage of PPF often focuses on its earlier business in Russia and China, which the group has reduced since 2022.