bne_newspaper_March_08_2019

bne:Newspaper Follow us on twitter.com/bneintellinews
Content:
2 Top Stories
4 The Regions This Week 8 Chart
9 bne Invest
12 Central Europe 13 Southeast Europe 14 Eastern Europe 19 Eurasia
20 Opinion
23 bne Tech
March 8, 2019 www.intellinews.com
Novatek's Mikhelson tops Russian Forbes list with $24bn fortune
IntelliNews Pro
Russian stoligarch and owner of independent gas producer Novatek Leonid Mikhelson has topped the Forbes list of the country's richest with an estimated fortune of $24bn, the ranking published on March 5 shows.
Notably, Mikhelson's estimated worth jumped from $18bn last year when he closed the top three
COMMENT: CBR's higher FX purchases in March – not yet a challenge
to the ruble
Dmitry Dolgin chief economist, Russia at ING in Moscow
The Russian Ministry of Finance has announced $4.7bn FX purchases for March, exceeding $3.7bn consensus and our $4.1bn expectations.
Combined with the backlog from 2H18, total FX purchases in March will reach $5.6bn. We do not see this as a threat to ruble in the short-term
behind metal tycoons Vladimir Lisin (NLMK, net worth of $21.3bn this year) and Alexei Mordashov (Severstal, net worth of $20.5bn).
Mikhelson is the founder and chairman of Russia's second-largest gas producer Novatek,
See page 2
thanks to the $9-10bn monthly current account in 1Q19. But mid-term risks are mounting.
The Russian finance ministry announced that it will channel RUB310bn ($4.7bn equivalent at the
See page 3