Czech Republic's richest man died in helicopter crash

Xinhua
30 Mar 2021, 02:30 GMT+10

PRAGUE, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Petr Kellner, the Czech Republic's richest person, died in a helicopter crash in Alaska, the United States, on Saturday, his financial group PPF said in a statement on Monday.

According to PPF, five people died in the crash and the cause of the accident is now under investigation.

"We announce with the deepest grief that, in a helicopter accident in Alaska mountains on Saturday, March 27, the founder and majority owner of the PPF group, Mr. Petr Kellner, died tragically," PPF said.

Kellner, 56, was a powerful figure in the business circles of the Czech Republic. In 2020, Forbes listed him as the 68th richest person in the world, with assets estimated at 17.5 billion U.S. dollars.

He made his fortune going back to the 1990s, when he, along with partners, set up PPF as an investment company. PPF's biggest move was to take a stake in what was formerly the nation's largest insurer, Ceska Pojistovna, which catapulted the company into further growth.

By mid-2020, PPF had assets estimated at 51.8 billion U.S. dollars in sectors like finance, telecommunications, manufacturing, media and biotech across Europe, Asia and North America.

It also owns Home Credit, an early entrant in the Chinese consumer lending market. Home Credit launched its initial business in China in 2007. Later, it was privileged to set up one of the very first consumer finance companies in China -- Home Credit Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. (HCCFC) in Tianjin.

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