PPF Group to acquire Škoda Transportation

Credit: Skoda

Investment firm PPF Group have signed an agreement to purchase 100 per cent of the shares of Škoda Transportation. This includes other assets related to Škoda Transportation’s business, such as the trademarks and the real estate used by the firm.

Škoda Transportation is a leading European manufacturer of vehicles for urban and railway transport, with a tradition of manufacturing that spans over 150 years. Currently Central and Eastern Europe’s leading manufacturer of rail vehicles, its core activities include the manufacturing of trams, suburban electric trains, locomotives, metro trains, trolleybuses and electric buses, for customers both in the Czech Republic and abroad.

Škoda Transportation currently employs over 5,000 workers in Šumperk and Pilsen. In addition to the parent company it has a number of subsidiaries and joint ventures operating in countries such as Germany, Finland, the US, Russia and Hungary which run their own individual projects. Škoda Transportation also pursue their own R&D programme.

For 2016, companies in which PPF Group held equity interests paid income taxes of CZK 2.2 billion in the Czech Republic, thereby potentially ranking among the country’s five biggest income tax payers on the Finance Ministry’s most recent charts. PPF Group invest into multiple market segments such as banking and financial services, telecommunications, biotechnology, insurance, real estate and agriculture. The firm’s reach spans from Europe to Russia, the USA and across Asia. As part of the deal, PPF Group will commit itself to provide an operating loan financing Škoda Transportation’s essential needs. Completion of the transaction is subject to approval by the relevant antitrust authorities.