Forbes: Kellner remains richest Czech despite considerable drop in assets

Despite the coronavirus crisis, the list of the richest Czechs remains more or less unchanged, according to an annual ranking published by Forbes on Wednesday. Petr Kellner, owner of investment group PPF, remains the richest Czech, despite a considerable drop in assets.

The market value of Petr Kellner’s assets has shrunk by CZK 57 billion to CZK 293 billion, due to the problems of his company Home Credit.

The real estate mogul Radovan Vítek, remains second on the list, with assets estimated at 86 billion crowns, followed by Daniel Křetínský, owner of the company EPH, with CZK 78 billion.

Czech Prime Minister and ANO party leader Andrej Babiš defended his fourth position in the ranking. His assets increased by four billion crowns on the previous year to CZK 74 billion. According to Forbes, he is one of the benefactors of the coronavirus crisis, since agriculture, food and fertilizers are among the least affected sectors.

Karel Komárek, owner of the JKKCG financial group, dropped from third to the fifth spot with assets amounting to CZK 71 billion. The overall wealth of the 100 richest Czechs increased to CZK 1.3 trillion, which is nearly as much as the revenues of the state budget of the Czech Republic for this year.

This year, there are two newcomers among the country’s 100 richest Czechs. They are Marek Španěl and Slavomír Pavlíček from the company Bohemia Interactive. Their most famous title Arma has sold over four million copies worldwide.

Jitka Cechlová Komárková tops the list of the Czech Republic’s richest women, with the market value of her assets estimated at 5.8 billion crowns.

Last year’s newcomer Oliver Dlouhý, founder of the Czech flight search company Kiwi.com, has dropped out of the list since his sector has been one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.