PPF Group Says Not Required to Make Second Buyout Offer in O2 Czech

By Sean Carney

PRAGUE--PPF Group NV, the Czech financial group owned by billionaire Petr Kellner, Tuesday said it hasn't purchased sufficient outstanding shares in telecommunications company O2 Czech Republic AS (BAATELEC.PR) to require a second buyout offer for minority shares, and so the stock is set to continue trading on the Prague Stock Exchange.

PPF Group "has not reached the statutory threshold of shares to oblige it to make an additional offer for the remaining shares in the process of the mandatory tender offer," the company said, without providing specific figures.

Once it completes the evaluation of all notices of acceptance of the initial buyback offer, some of which haven't yet been received, PPF Group will release the exact number of shares acquired and voting rights, it said.

In January, PPF Group bought its 65.9% stake in the company from Telefonica SA (TEF) of Spain for 2.06 billion euros ($2.82 billion) outright and for an additional EUR303 million over the following four years.

In May, PPF Group approved a 295.15 koruna ($14.72) offer for each outstanding share. However, that was below the then-market price for the stock and also below the CZK305.63-per-share purchase price that PPF paid for the company in January, and so minority shareholders didn't flock en masse to the buyout offer.

PPF Group carried out the buyout of minority shareholders through its Dutch-registered subsidiary PPF Arena 2 BV.

O2 Czech Republic shares closed down 2.1% on the day at CZK278.1 a share in Prague.

Write to Sean Carney at [e-mail]

Go to http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope for the WSJ blog on Central and Eastern Europe, covering business, politics, society and more, written by our correspondents across the region.

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires