Czech investment firm PPF, owned by local billionaire Petr Kellner, is seeking a Kc32.3bn (US$1.29bn) loan from Ceska Telekomunikacni Infrastruktura (CETIN), the group has stated.
The infrastructure business – valued by Deloitte at Kc46.9bn…
Czech investment firm PPF, owned by local billionaire Petr Kellner, is seeking a Kc32.3bn (US$1.29bn) loan from Ceska Telekomunikacni Infrastruktura (CETIN), the group has stated.
The infrastructure business – valued by Deloitte at Kc46.9bn (US$1.91bn) – was last month spun off from O2 CR, which is 83% owned by PPF.
PPF also said it would buy back shares in both O2 CR and CETIN, at a price yet to be announced.
The investment group would use the proceeds to repay the bank loan it took out to buy a majority stake in O2 CR from Telefonica. It initially bought a 65.9% stake for some US$3.4bn in January 2014, subsequently upping its ownership to the current level.
Once the spin-off was announced, O2 CR said it had terminated talks to provide a loan to PPF. In its statement on the current loan, it said it would not seek to borrow funds from O2 CR.
In December 2014, O2 CR had approved a seven-year loan to the investor worth up to Kc24.8bn (US$1.1bn).
O2 CR minority shareholders have in the meantime filed a challenge to the company’s separation, with its adviser KLB Legal describing alleging that the resolution was passed “unlawfully”.
Spokespeople for O2 CR, CETIN and PPF were not immediately available for comment.