PPF, the biggest Czech private financial group, is interested in more acquisitions in Southeastern Europe, potentially including the regional telecom assets of Netherland-headquartered United Group, controlled by BC Partners private equity fund and Serbian billionaire Dragan Šolak.

“There are certainly several assets there that fit well into the topology of our business in this part of Europe,” CEO Jiří Šmejc said in an interview with Reuters.

United Group, which has annual revenue of euro2.9bn, says it is the leading multi-play telecoms, cable and media provider in South East Europe. It operates mainly in Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Greece.

The international news agency noted that “United Group’s telecoms assets in southeastern Europe have been put up for potential sale”, quoting a source with knowledge of the matter.

Šmejc said that “we have told ourselves we would look at it but at the moment the situation seems a little bit unclear, which direction it will go.”

BC Partners did not respond to a request for comment, Reuters said.

In 2021, PPF was criticised for striking a deal with Telekom Serbia that appeared designed to give the majority-state-owned Serbian telco an upper hand in its bitter rivalry with United Group. Telekom Serbia, critics argue, is backed by the Serbian ruling SNS party of president Aleksandar Vučić. PPF denied the criticism of the deal with Telekom Serbia and accused United Group of orchestrating “a smear campaign” against PPF.  

Šmejc made the comments shortly after PPF completed its blockbuster €2.2bn deal with UAE’s telecommunications company e&, for which it obtained conditional approval from the EU in September.  The deal will bring e& in as a key partner in Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia.

Šmejc told Reuters that PPF and e& would be interested in some European Vodafone assets, but he added that there are no talks underway.

In the interview, he also criticised the management of Germany's ProSieben, in which PPF has a 15% stake, the second largest.

“To put it simply, we do not have the feeling that the management is doing a good enough job,” Šmejc said, adding that “when I compare it to our companies, the sense of urgency that we feel when we try to turn a negative trend is completely different than what we see from the management”.

Šmejc took over as PPF’s CEO in 2022  following the death of PPF founder Petr Kellner in a heliskiing accident in Alaska. He was once a business partner of Kellner, and oversaw PPF’s assets in Russia and its expansion in China.

Under Šmejc, PPF began an exit from Russia in the aftermath of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, selling its Russian PPF Life Insurance recently. It is also in the process of selling its consumer lending business in China – Home Credit Consumer Finance, once a local market leader.