The shareholders of Central European Media Enterprises (CME) approved a takeover by Czech-owned investment firm PPF Group, despite calls for the deal to be reviewed over PPF’s relationship with Chinese authorities. CME owns the Czech Republic’s most-viewed television station, Nova, and operates additional stations in Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The $2.1bn purchase of CME by PPF Group has caused public concern, including that of United States Senator Marco Rubio, due to the investment firm’s business operations in China. PPF’s ties to Chinese authorities were strengthened in 2014, when a financial institution owned by PPF, Home Credit, was given the first foreign license to deal in China’s domestic loans market. Following the announcement of CME’s acquisition by PPF, Senator Rubio wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Attorney General William Barr in which he explained that PPF was the Chinese state’s “proxy inside the Czech Republic”.