PPF Telecom Group Completes Separation of Retail and Infrastructure Business and Establishes CETIN Group

Newly founded CETIN Bulgaria, CETIN Hungary, and CETIN Serbia, together with CETIN in the Czech Republic will become the telecommunication infrastructure backbone of PPF Telecom Group. CETIN Group’s extensive, 24/7 supervised networks will provide superior voice, data, TV, video, IT, and cybersecurity services to Telenor CEE and other wholesale customers in the region and internationally, including O2 Czech Republic. Separating infrastructure from retail (including B2B) will enable the two separated entities in each country to wholly focus on two different market segments and meet in the most efficient way the increasing demands of the CEE telecommunications market.

CETIN entities will maximise potential for wholesale partnerships and create greater technological infrastructure synergies through combined R&D, development, innovation, and long-term investments in telecommunication technologies and infrastructure. While the construction and operation of infrastructure will be under CETIN’s full responsibility, the retail organisations, instead, will be able to exclusively dedicate energy to their service propositions and retail customer management.

PPF Telecom Group expects this move to strengthen both the retail and infrastructure businesses and lead to greater opportunities across CEE, with Telenor CEE stakeholders and consumers only benefiting from the separation, just as a similar separation of O2 and CETIN in the Czech Republic did five years ago.

CETIN Bulgaria, CETIN in the Czech Republic, CETIN Hungary, and CETIN Serbia will fall, subject to completion of internal restructuring, under CETIN Group, which will remain under control of PPF Telecom Group.  Each of the new regional CETIN organizations will begin to apply key learnings from the 2015 separation of O2 and CETIN in the Czech Republic and benefit from technological, commercial, and innovation know-how and cooperation. All Telenor branded organizations will rely on the services of their local CETIN providers.

“Looking back, I am proud of what we have accomplished over the last five years. We have proven our innovative and entrepreneurial spirit by pioneering Europe’s first voluntary separation of O2 and CETIN. In 2018, we acquired CEE Telenor-branded mobile operators and in less than two years have taken another bold step in solidifying our position in the CEE by taking our expertise and applying it to other markets.  I am confident CETIN Group will become major infrastructure player in our region,” said Ladislav Bartoníček, PPF Group Shareholder and CEO of PPF Telecom Group.

“As our societies continue to digitalise, there is an ever-increasing need for seamless, reliable, and secure connectivity. CETIN Group intends to play a leading role in driving digital transformation with cutting-edge communications infrastructure solutions in CEE. The regional alignment and synergies generated by this separation will facilitate innovation and implementation of new technologies that will drive the telecommunications sector in the years to come,” said Juraj Šedivý, Chairman of the Board of CETIN in the Czech Republic, and newly appointed Board Member of CETIN Group B.V.

Jan Kadaník has been newly appointed Chairman of the CETIN Group B.V. Board of Directors and will focus on the overall strategy of the CETIN Group. Mr. Juraj Šedivý shall be responsible, in his position of the Board Member and CEO, for the management and operations of the CETIN Group.