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Vladimir Potanin $13.9bn
Metals
Potanin (56) made his fortune by acquiring Norilsk Nickel in the controversial 1995 loans- for-shares programme. Potanin owns 30%
in Norilsk Nickel, as well as pharmaceutical company Petrowax, and heads the Interros conglomerate, which has large stakes in mining, metals, energy, finance, retail, real estate and other sectors.
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Vagit Alekperov $13.6bn
Oil
Azerbaijan-born Vagit Alekperov (66) has been president of the leading independent Russian oil company Lukoil since 1993. He rose steadily through the ranks of different Soviet Russian oil and gas companies before becoming the young- est ever deputy oil and gas minister in 1990.
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Andrey Melnichenko $12.9bn
Finance, fertilisers, coal, energy
Melnichenko (45) co-founded MDM Bank in 1993 at the age of 21, and also co-founded steel pipe producer TMK, selling the stake in 2004 on the LSE. Today Melnichenko’s portfolio is diversified between majority stakes in fertiliser producer Eurochem, coal producer SUEK, and power generator SGK.
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Viktor Vekselberg $12.7bn
Aluminium, oil, energy, telecoms
Vekselberg (60) is owner and president of the Renova Group conglomerate, with interests in aluminium, oil, energy, telecoms and other sec- tors.He also has a stake in UC Rusal, and also received $7bn in cash when he and his partners sold their 50% stake in joint oil venture TNK-BP to state-owned Rosneft in 2013.
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Mikhail Prokhorov $8.8bn
Aluminium, electricity, finance, media
Prokhorov (51) made his initial fortune in pre- cious metals following the 2008 sale of his stake in metals giant Norilsk Nickel. He holds stakes in Russian aluminum, power, insurance, banking and media companies, and also owns the US basketball team the Brooklyn Nets.
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$6.5bn
Oil, finance, media, hotels, warehouses
Mikhail Gutseriev
Gutseriev (59) was forced to flee Russia in 2008 to avoid being jailed like Mikhail Khodorkovsky for interfering in politics. But after negotiating a peace deal with the Kremlin, he returned in 2010 and now his empire includes oil group Russneft, banks, pension funds, a radio station, the iconic National Hotel in Moscow and almost a third of the warehouses in the capital.
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Sergey Galitsky $6.4bn
Retail
Galitsky entered the retail business in the early 1990s and immediately after the 1998 financial crisis he opened the first Magnit grocery store. Since 2000 it has became Russia’s largest retail chain with 14,000 stores, and was valued at $1.9bn in its 2006 IPO.
ners and let them get on with the job
of running the businesses. Most of the financial-industrial groups of the time were vertically integrated one-man shows, but Fridman set up a series of divisions, each one run by its own semi- autonomous manager to run his various trading businesses, including the Alfa Ekho commodities trading firm that provided the capital to start Alfa Bank. Today these businesses have been super- seded by assets such as Russia’s largest supermarket chain X5 Retail Group, and Altimo, which unites holdings in Russia’s two biggest mobile phone companies.
When Fridman finally got into the oil business he paid just under $1bn for 40% in an open privatisation auction for the Tymen Oil Com- pany in 1997, hailed as the first real privatisation in post-Soviet his-
tory with the first realistic price.
Legal battles and corporate harassment have followed in the wake of many Alfa deals. Even the flagship tie-up between Alfa’s oil company TNK and BP ended with police raids on the company to drive out the British management team.
Strategic forecasting company Stratfor described him as ruthless: “Fridman
has repeatedly outmaneuvered far more politically and economically powerful rivals to end up on top, crushing his foes in the process. His skilled allies, impec- cable business acumen, lack of a temper, and utter absence of emotional attach- ment to his business holdings has made him rich, and will keep him so for a long time to come.”
Unlike many of his peers, who made their children heirs to their empires, Fridman says he doesn’t want his four children involved in Alfa Group – nor does he plan to leave them money in his will, as they should create something on their own. “I am going to transfer all my money to charity. I don’t plan to transfer any money to my children,” Fridman said in 2016.
Name Net worth Sector
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