Page 30 - bne_Magazine_May_2017_print

30 I Cover story bne May 2017
EASTERN EUROPE
Mikhail Fridman Russia (1)
When the Russian oligarchs first appeared in the second half of the 1990s, Mikhail Fridman was late to the game, writes Ben Aris. Fridman, who was born in 1964 to a Jewish family in Lviv, Ukraine, was not part of the Soviet elite, nor had he gone to one of the privileged universities that handed some other oligarchs the govern- ment contacts they needed to enrich themselves. But today he has a net worth of more than $13bn, according to Forbes.
Fridman was not in a position to tap into the rigged loans-for-shares deals in 1996/97 that allowed the Yeltsin- era oligarchs to grab control of their cash cows, Russia’s biggest oil and raw materials companies. Instead, having famously started off in busi- ness by cleaning windows, in the
first decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union he doggedly built up Alfa Group, with Alfa Bank at its centre.
Fridman’s strength in business has always been to find competent part-
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BELARUS
1
Viktor Kislyi $1bn
Computer games
Minsk-born Kislyi (40) is the founder and major shareholder of the Wargaming group of compa- nies, one of the rare global success stories to have originated in Belarus. His Cyprus-head- quartered group now has 15 offices and 4,000 employees worldwide, and its games are played by more than 150mn players.
2
Arkadiy Dobkin Wealth unknown Software
Arkadiy Dobkin (56) founded EPAM Systems in the Belarusian capital of Minsk in 1993, which has since grown into a global software engi- neering giant listed on the NYSE and employing around 17,000 people in his homeland.
RUSSIA
2
$18bn Gas
Leonid Mikhelson
Mikhelson (61) is the chairman of the indepen- dent Russian gas company Novatek and of the Sibur gas processing and petrochemical com- pany, for which his partner in both is billion- aire Gennady Timchenko. After the fall of the Soviet Union he acquired a stake in a privatised pipeline construction company from which he formed Novatek to secure licences to explore for natural gas.
3
$15.7bn
Energy, transport, infrastructure
Gennady Timchenko
Timchenko (64) is the founder and owner of the private investment group Volga Group, which specialises in energy, transport and infrastruc- ture. His wealth came mainly from oil and gas, from his former 43% stake in international energy trader Gunvor Group, and stakes in in- dependent gas company Novatek, petrochemi- chal producer Sibur Holding, railway operator Transoil and the STG Group construction firm.
4
Vladimir Lisin
$15.1bn
Steel, transport
Lisin (60) is the chairman and majority share- holder of the NLMK steel company, and also controls Universal Cargo Logistics Holding, which owns railway operator First Cargo, and some ports and shipping companies.
5
Alisher Usmanov
$14.7bn
Steel, telecoms
The largest holding today of Uzbekistan- born Usmanov (63) is his stake in iron ore and steel company Metalloinvest. He is also co-owner of Russia's second-largest mobile telephone operator MegaFon, holds a stake in Arsenal Football Club, and in China’s electronic commerce company JD.com and low-cost smartphone maker Xiaomi.