Commentary
Politics
EU Should Enlarge, Even Out of Despair – COMMENTARY
3 October 2024
As the PPF investment group navigates controversies and probes across Europe and beyond, its entanglement with political influences and market dynamics reveals a complex legacy that continues to evolve in the post-Kellner era.
The Prague-headquartered PPF investment group has recently attracted international media attention.
This follows turmoil at the largest commercial television station in Slovakia and, more notably, reports of the European Commission launching a probe into some of PPF’s dealings. The probe concerns PPF’s €2.2 billion sale of its telecommunications assets in Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia to the United Arab Emirates’s state-backed e& (or Etisalat) in the summer of 2023. Experts say this marks the inaugural EU probe under the new Foreign Subsidies Regulation, targeting significant players in PPF and e&.
The group’s investments encompass diverse sectors such as banking, financial services, telecommunications, media, biotechnology, real estate and industry, spanning markets across Europe, Asia and to a lesser extent also North America.