Kellner Tycoon Family Scraps $1.1 Billion Merger

Moneta Money Bank’s valuations have slumped, falling to the lowest level in more than two years after the Czech billionaire Kellner family scrapped a merger deal that would have offered minority investors a substantial premium to the current market price.

PPF Group NV and Moneta said late on Monday that they had agreed to terminate one of the last large transactions initiated by the investment company’s founder, Petr Kellner, before he died in a helicopter crash last year.

The merger would have created a new banking giant, relative to the country’s small size, with over 2.5 million customers, or nearly a quarter of the country’s population. The new merged entity would have ranked 3rd overall in terms of customers, while also becoming the second-largest company in the Consumer Finance sector.

The planned combination of its Air Bank Group with Prague-traded Moneta into one of the biggest Czech lenders is no longer favorable because of a worsening economy, according to PPF, which stated that “This rise in the countercyclical capital buffer will drastically diminish the dividend capacity planned for the merged bank and further negatively impact the attractiveness of the planned acquisition.” The effects of widespread macroeconomic and political turmoil, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ongoing concerns due to persistent COVID strains, have been identified as factors leading to the souring of the deal.

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