The Czech Republic’s PPF Group has issued a strong response to US Senator Marco Rubio’s calls for an investigation into the sale of Central European Media Enterprises (CME).
Aside from claiming that Senator Rubio is relying on false information supplied by the Czech politician Pavel Fischer, it identifies a number of factual inaccuracies in his letter calling for an investigation. These include a denial that PPF is propagating Huawei’s technology as it inherited it when acquiring
Telenor’s assets in Central and Eastern Europe two years ago.
PPF continues by saying: “Over the course of 30 years, PPF Group has grown to become one of the largest Czech companies, and today it operates in 24 countries across three continents. PPF’s shareholders and its top management have always espoused the principles of freedom, liberal democracy, and a free market. The fact that we, like thousands of other Western companies, also operate in China, does not in any way imply a contradictory worldview. Far from it; as people who have lived a considerable part of their lives under totalitarian communism, we deeply value freedom of expression”.
It concludes: “We therefore reiterate that PPF is buying CME as a complement to its telecommunications business, without any ulterior motives. As part of the process of acquiring CME, PPF Group is cooperating with all the relevant regulatory bodies, and we are providing them with all necessary information. PPF Group will contact Senator Rubio to provide him with accurate information about our company”.
Broadband TV News notes that the Czech press agency CTK has reported that CME shareholders have approved the company’s sale to PPF. CME is currently owned by the US’s AT&T.
