"No. 26. Khodorkovsky's estimated worth more than doubled -- from $3.7 billion to $8 billion "
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Natalia
Yefimova
Russia's per capita GDP may be dragging behind Costa Rica's, but its head count of billionaires is the fourth highest in the world, according to Forbes magazine's annual rating of the super rich, released late last week.
The list of the
country's billionaires burgeoned to 17 over the past year -- 10 more
than in 2002 -- thanks to high oil prices, a growing stock market
and greater corporate transparency.
For a second year
in a row, Russia's richest men have managed to buck the trend of
shrinking fortunes. Worldwide, the number of billionaires year on
year fell from 497 to 476 and their combined wealth from $1.54
trillion to $1.4 trillion. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, steadily
No. 1 on the Forbes list since 1998, ended up $12.1 billion poorer
than the year before, his worth dropping to $40.7 billion.
All but five of
Russia's billionaires are heavily involved in the oil sector.
The strongest
showing was by Yukos, whose top executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky
retained his title as Russia's richest man and shot up from his No.
101 spot last year to No. 26. Khodorkovsky's estimated worth more
than doubled -- from $3.7 billion to $8 billion.
Of the 10 new
tycoons on this year's list, five earned their riches at Yukos or
affiliated banking and insurance conglomerate Menatep.
Khodorkovsky, who
says he owns 6 percent to 7 percent of the company, attributed the
jump in his fortune to Yukos' growing capitalization.
"These are the same
shares of the same company," Interfax quoted him as saying.
"The fact that it
is becoming worth more means that our work has been a success. The
fact that a lot of oil executives made it onto the list means that
our oil sector is the most public and open. I think my fellow
businessmen from other sectors still have the journey toward
financial transparency ahead of them."
Stephen O'Sullivan,
head of research at United Financial Group, said one big reason for
the rising number of Russian billionaires is greater disclosure.
"Most people have
taken the view that Mr. Khodorkovsky owns Yukos and now we know that
he does. But many other people have large stakes as well,"
O'Sullivan said Friday. "People we didn't know about last year, we
now know about."
Another factor was
Russia's growing stock market, which was up 35 percent to 40 percent
last year, driving the value of the billionaires' industrial
holdings.
"Clearly, a large
part of their wealth is not sitting in the bank in cash," said
O'Sullivan. "It's sitting in the form of shareholdings in the
companies that they now own, control and manage."
Russia's top trio
of billionaires remained unchanged.
The second richest
after Khodorkovsky was Chukotka Governor Roman Abramovich, whose
Millhouse Capital holding controls oil major Sibneft and half of
metals giant Russian Aluminum. Abramovich's fortune swelled from $3
billion to $5.7 billion, boosting him from No. 127 to No. 49.
Russia's No. 3 for
a second year in a row was Alfa Group chairman Mikhail Fridman,
whose company's prize holding, the Tyumen Oil Co., or TNK, signed a
landmark $6.75 billion deal last month with BP.
Fridman's worth
nearly doubled over the past year, up from $2.2 billion to $4.3
billion, hoisting him from No. 191 to No. 68.
The top newcomer to
the list was major TNK shareholder Viktor Vekselberg, who entered as
Russia's fourth richest man with $2.5 billion.
Russia's youngest
billionaire was Oleg Deripaska, 34, whose Base Element holding
co-owns Russian Aluminum together with Millhouse.
Deripaska's worth
edged up from $1.1 billion to $1.5 billion, propelling him from No.
413 to No. 278. He overtook LUKoil's Vagit Alekperov and
Surgutneftegaz head Vladimir Bogdanov -- the only two Russian
billionaires who saw their fortunes get smaller over the past year.
Conspicuously
absent from the list was one-time Kremlin power broker Boris
Berezovsky -- ostensibly because the self-exiled oligarch, who
recently estimated his own fortune at $3 billion, has been loath to
disclose his holdings in Russia and abroad.
Berezovsky was
declared the country's richest man in 1997, the first year Russians
made it onto the Forbes list. The only billionaire the following
year was Interros chairman Vladimir Potanin, who was ranked Russia's
fifth richest man in the latest rating.
In 1999 and 2000,
still reeling from its August 1998 financial crash, the country
registered no billionaires at all.
But Russia popped
back onto the scene in 2001 with eight names on the list, and held
on to seven spots in 2002.
The 17 billionaires
on this year's list put Russia behind only the United States,
Germany and Japan.
Aside from dry
statistics, the Forbes list reveals some entertaining personal
details about the world's richest people.
Khodorkovsky, who
is only 39, has four children.
The only Russian
billionaire who is a bachelor, says Forbes, is Norilsk Nickel CEO
Mikhail Prokhorov, who "is often featured in gossip columns about
blow-out parties on the French Riviera."
Prokhorov drew
chuckles from the business community last week when, under pressure
from striking workers, he announced that his official monthly salary
was only some 450 rubles (about $14).
Bogdanov's bio
calls him "exceptionally private: Dubbed the Hermit of Siberia,
Bogdanov rarely leaves his remote oil town, never grants interviews
and shuns the trappings of wealth; often walks to work and does his
own grocery shopping."
Deripaska is
married to the daughter of former President Boris Yeltsin's chief of
staff, Valentin Yumashev, who in turn married Yeltsin's daughter
Tatyana Dyachenko -- "which means that Deripaska is now Yeltsin's
grandson by marriage," says Forbes.
The list also
reminds readers of the close ties between big money and big
politics.
Besides
Abramovich's governorship and Deripaska's familial proximity to the
Kremlin, three of the Yukos debutants have shuttled between
corporate suites and public office.
Khodorkovsky's
long-time partner Leonid Nevzlin is a Federation Council senator,
appointed in 2001 from the Volga region of Mordovia.
Vladimir Dubov,
identified as a major Yukos shareholder, made it into the State Duma
in 1999 on the Fatherland-All Russia ticket.
Dubov is now a
member of the budget and taxes committee and the commission on
production-sharing agreements.
Another shareholder
of Yukos and Menatep, Vasily Shakhnovsky, served in the 1990s as
chief of staff to Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and was one of the top
managers of Yeltsin's hair-raising re-election campaign in 1996.
Russia's Billionaires | Rank (prev.) | Billionaire, age | Fortune** (prev.) | Interests | 26 (101) | Mikhail Khodorkovsky, 39 | 8.0 (3.7) | Menatep/Yukos | 49 (127) | Roman Abramovich, 36 | 5.7 (3.0) | Millhouse Capital (Sibneft/RusAl) | 68 (191) | Mikhail Fridman, 38 | 4.3 (2.2) | Alfa Group/TNK | 147 | *Viktor Vekselberg, 45 | 2.5 | Alfa Group/TNK | 222 (234) | Vladimir Potanin, 42 | 1.8 (1.8) | Interros/Norilsk Nickel | 256 | *Mikhail Prokhorov, 37 | 1.6 | Interros/Norilsk Nickel | 278 | *Vladimir Yevtushenkov, 54 | 1.5 | AFK Sistema | 278 (413) | Oleg Deripaska, 34 | 1.5 (1.1) | Base Element (RusAl) | 329 (327) | Vagit Alekperov, 52 | 1.3 (1.4) | LUKoil | 348 | *Alexei Mordashov, 37 | 1.2 | Severstal | 386 | *Leonid Nevzlin, 43 | 1.1 | Menatep/Yukos | 386 | *Eugene Shvidler, 38 | 1.1 | Sibneft | 427 (277) | Vladimir Bogdanov, 51 | 1.0 (1.6) | Surgutneftegaz | 427 | *Mikhail Brudno, 43 | 1.0 | Menatep/Yukos | 427 | *Vladimir Dubov, 45 | 1.0 | Menatep/Yukos | 427 | *Platon Lebedev, 46 | 1.0 | Menatep/Yukos | 427 | *Vasily Shakhnovsky, 45 | 1.0 | Menatep/Yukos | * new on the list ** estimate in U.S. dollars Source: Forbes |
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