Final Word from Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Ladislav Bartoníček, appointed CEO of PPF after Petr Kellner died in a helicopter accident in Alaska in March 2021, told Czech Radio that his job was to make sure the investment group kept going, that nothing got overlooked and that the banks didn't call the loans, because the nearly 100% owner had disappeared. He didn't say what conditions the banks put on PPF for keeping the credit open, but PPF has since accelerated its pivot to the West. Agrofert's custodians could find themselves in a similar situation if 100% owner Andrej Babiš disappears into a coalition with the Motorists and SPD and starts pivoting the CR toward Slovakia, Hungary or beyond. As of the end of 2024, Agrofert had Kč 39.6bn in bank and other loans, of which more than 80% was from units of Western European banks. This means Société Générale, Erste, Raiffeisen, UniCredit, KBC, Commerzbank and others. If Babiš forms a government that relies on the "extremists" of SPD, it will be with the full consent of Agrofert's eurozone bankers. [ Czech Republic creditors debt ]