Petr Kellner

Petr Kellner (born 20 May 1964) is a Czech businessman. He is estimated to have a net worth of US$ 10.4. billion according to Forbes' latest annual list of billionaires, making him the wealthiest person in the Czech Republic. At the same time, he is currently ranked as the 106th richest person in the world. After the Velvet revolution he worked for the Czech company Impromat, an importer and seller of Ricoh photocopiers. While working for that company, he met Milan Maděryč and Milan Vinkler.

Investment fund PPF
In 1991, after the announcement of Czechoslovak voucher privatization he founded, with Milan Vinkler and state-owned glassworks Sklo Union, the investment fund PPF (První privatizační fond). In 1992, PPF investiční společnost a.s. was established and the funds’ names were changed from privatisation to investment. The funds were very successful and purchased stock of more than 200 corporations with value over 5 billion CZK. With help of these profitable transactions, the last investors from voucher privatization were bought out and Petr Kellner became the dominant owner of PPF group. Kellner himself owns 2,02% stake in Assicurazioni Generali.

Wealth
As of 2009, Kellner owned 94.36% of the PPF financial group. In 2006, Forbes estimated PPF's net worth at US $3 billion and listed Kellner as 224th wealthiest man in the world. In 2007, he moved up to 119th with US$ 6 billion and then in 2008 to 91st with US$ 9.3 billion. In 2009 he was 76th with US$ 6 billion and in 2010 89th with US$ 7.6 billion. Kellner´s newest position on the Forbes list is 106th with an estimated wealth of US$ 10.4 billion (2012).

However, the above figures were criticized as overestimated by some Czech economic media. Their estimates were considerably lower, CZK 60–75 billion (app. US$ 4 billion) according to the weekly Týden, or even less than CZK 50 billion (app. US$ 3 billion) according to journalist Miroslav Motejlek. Thus, Kellner would have been surpassed by entrepreneur Andrej Babiš on the position of the wealthiest resident of the Czech Republic.

He owns a Gulfstream G500 airplane named Káně. In 2010 he bought Boeing 737-700BBJ. He lives in an extensive residence in the village of Podkozí near Prague, but he owns a number of other real estates - for example apartments in Prague, London, Moscow, a log cabin in the Alps, a house in Barbados, and a whole island resort (part of British Virgin Islands). Kellner owns also one of the largest collections of photographs taken by Josef Sudek.

See Also
*The Kellner Family Foundation