The Visegrad Insight online magazine warned that Czech billionaire Petr Kelner’s PPF is targeting the Serbian telecommunications market through its strategy of aligning its business operations with government interests.

“In Serbia, the business and investment conglomerate PPF has a strategy of aligning its business with government interests, which gives PPF’s telecommunications company Telenor political and business advantages. The Serbian opposition has called on PFF founder and Czech billionaire Petr Kellner to withdraw from activities that give pro-government Telekom Serbia an upper hand on the market and violate EU norms,” it said.

The state-controlled Telekom Serbia has made a deal with Telekom, allowing the PPF-owned mobile phone services provider access to its optic cable infrastructure and TV channels at low prices, in an effort to reduce the market share of United Group’s SBB cable services provider to under 30 percent which would seriously cut down the viewership of N1 TV, Nova S and Sport Klub.

Visegrad Insight recalled that Telekom Serbia is managed by Serbian ruling party (SNS) officials and that it has a market presence in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro.

“The latest reports of the state-owned company forging a business partnership with PPF’s Telenor telecommunication network exemplifies PPF’s long-term strategy approach in many ways. Under the scheme referred to by the Telekom Serbia management in internal documents, reported by the Serbian N1 or Broadband TV News (ed. Visegrad Insight has been able to examine the documents too), Serbia’s state operator would grant Telenor access to the telecommunication infrastructure in order to increase its own income and number of clients.

“Ultimately, this would also mean that the market share of Telekom Serbia’s competitor, Serbia Broadband (SBB), would be reduced below 30 per cent. These competitors have been at odds for some time, but the reported plans are written in a blatant language and deliberately attack SBB,” it said.

Visegrad Insight said that “PPF’s companies pursue access or shares in telecommunication networks in other countries in the greater region, most notably in Czechia where PPF is actually an owner of the country’s telecommunication infrastructure through CETIN, a PPF sister company”. “CETIN has come to the attention of local media when it planned to develop 5G network in cooperation with Huawei, and before it decided to forge a partnership with Ericsson following a wave of criticism and security concerns. More recently, PPF’s mobile operator O2 has won the largest share of the 5G frequencies in a public auction which saw the two other major operators obtain shares, but also two newcomers owned by former PPF associates,” the online magazine said.

”In the case of Telekom Serbia, cooperation with PPF’s Telenor constitutes a virtually inseparable marriage of business and politics. Journalists and media watchers warn against a significant shift in the balance of power at the expanse of SBB or N1 media channels frequently used by opposition politicians voicing criticism of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s government. Vucic himself has been a cause of concern for dominating Serbian media landscape and for illiberal tendencies,” it said and added that opposition criticism and developments in Serbia have not gone unnoticed in Slovenia where PPF controls key media through the Central European Media Enterprises (CME).

“In December, Petr Kellner paid a personal visit to the controversial Prime Minister Jansa who is criticised by the international journalist community for his shameless attacks on public broadcasters and media not aligned with his SDS party,” it said.

“In the meantime, in Czechia PPF has continuously pledged to avoid politics or, when confronted with a situation such as the Jansa-Kellner conspicuous meeting, chose to remain behind a wall of silence. This has been perhaps most apparent last October, following the EC’s greenlighting of the CME acquisition, when international media organisations voiced concerns over the accumulation of media power in PPF’s hands in an open letter addressed to Petr Kellner. The PPF Group responded that the company “believes in freedom, democracy, entrepreneurship, professionalism, and a plurality of opinions,” Visegrad Insight said.

“The scheme involving the Serbian state telecommunication company is the latest example of PPF’s recurring business strategy. The group has a history of business dealings in countries with a dire state of media freedom such as China and Russia. When business can flourish with the aid and involvement of politics, PPF is ready to get involved,” the online magazine said.