Roman Abramovich

Famous for

Considered the most famous Russian businessman in the world, Roman Abramovich made a fortune from the privatization of Soviet assets in the 1990s. He is the former owner of Chelsea football club and the former Governor of Chukotka. He is the majority owner of Evraz, Russia’s second largest steel producer, as of 2024.

Assets

Abramovich is the majority shareholder (28.64%) of Evraz, one of the world’s largest metals and mining companies with assets in Russia, the United States, Canada, the Czech Republic and Kazakhstan. Revenues for 2021 were 770.3 billion rubles (about $10.54 billion). The value of the company as of 2023 was about $1.58 billion (143.8 billion rubles).
Together with a business partner, he owns 41.1% of the Azbuka Vkusa supermarket chain, Russia’s largest premium FMCG brand.
He holds a 9.78% stake in Renaissance Insurance, one of Russia’s largest insurance companies.
He also owns various real estate assets alongside his partners through Millhouse. In 2022, the company earned $80 million (about 5.44 billion rubles) from rentals. Millhouse owns business centres, hotels, apartment buildings and retail spaces.
As of 2021, together with a business partner, he owns a 4.7% stake in Nornickel, the world’s largest nickel and palladium producer.
He is a minority shareholder in Ivi, Russia’s largest streaming service.
Together with business partners, he owns no more than 3.9% of Russian IT giant Yandex.
As of 2023, through offshore companies, Abramovich owns 10 aircraft and 16 ships worth more than $1.6 billion (about 145.6 billion rubles). His largest yachts are the Eclipse, which is 162 metres long and worth $427 million (about 38.8 billion rubles), and the Solaris, which is 140 metres long and worth $475 million (about 43.2 billion rubles).
Abramovich owns a chateau, villas, mansions and estates in France, the UK and Austria. Their total value in 2022 was estimated at $610 million (about 40.8 billion rubles).

Interests and hobbies

Abramovich has successfully developed the Chelsea football club. In 19 years under the businessman’s management, the club won five English Premier League trophies, eight domestic cups, two titles each in the Champions League and Europa League, and a number of other titles.
Abramovich is an art collector, and owns 367 works worth about $1 billion (85 billion rubles). His collection includes paintings by masters such as Monet, Degas, Picasso and Magritte.
Roman Abramovich has a collection of cars that includes two armoured Maybach 62 limousines, a Ferrari FXX (one of only 30 in the world), a Bugatti Veyron, a Maserati MC12 Corse, a Ferrari 360, a modified Porsche Carrera GT, a Porsche 911 GT1, a Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR and a Rolls-Royce Corniche. All of the cars were built to order and are bespoke.

Professional history

Roman Abramovich was born on 24 October 1966 in Saratov, USSR. He was orphaned at an early age and raised by relatives.

In 1983, he enrolled at the Ukhta Industrial Institute, but did not complete his studies. He did not receive a higher education until 2001, in absentia, at the Moscow State Law Academy (now a university).

From 1984 to 1986 he served in the Soviet army.

Until 1989 he worked as a mechanic in the construction department of the Mosspetsmontazh trust, and then at a cooperative where he sold toys. He then launched a similar cooperative of his own called Uyut (‘Comfort’).

Later, in the early 1990s, he set up a number of companies, including those dealing with hydrocarbons. During this time, he met Russian entrepreneurs Boris Berezovsky, Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and other future business partners.

In 1995, together with Boris Berezovsky, he privatized Sibneft, Russia’s sixth largest oil producer, through a series of auctions. According to some estimates, the purchase price may have been around 25 times lower than the actual market value.

In 1998, the media wrote about Abramovich’s ties to the president. In 1999 he entered politics himself, becoming Governor of Chukotka. He held positions in the region’s leadership until 2013, when Russian officials were banned from owning foreign property.

In 2000, he bought a 49% stake in the country’s flagship television station ORT (now Channel One) from Boris Berezovsky for $150 million (about 4.2 billion rubles). Over the next 19 years, Abramovich gradually sold off his stake in the company.

In 2000, he became co-owner of several companies with Oleg Deripaska, with whom he also founded Rusal. The company would go on to become one of the world’s largest aluminium producers.

In 2001, Abramovich established Millhouse, an investment holding company that would manage his assets.

In the same year, Abramovich and his partners acquired 29% of the semi-public airline Aeroflot for $120 million (about 3.48 billion rubles).

In 2003–2004, Abramovich sold his stake in Rusal to Oleg Deripaska, also selling off other joint assets he owned with him. At the same time, he got rid of his shares in Aeroflot.

In 2005, he sold his stake in Sibneft to Gazprom for $13.1 billion (about 366.8 billion rubles).

By this point, virtually all of Abramovich’s major Russian assets had been sold.

In 2003, Abramovich bought Chelsea, an English football club on the verge of bankruptcy, for $230 million (about 6.9 billion rubles). After that, he made frequent trips to London.

In 2006, Abramovich and his partners bought a 41% stake in Evraz for about $3 billion (81 billion rubles). It is now one of the largest steel and mining companies in the world.

In 2012, Abramovich and his Millhouse partners became co-owners of Nornickel, the world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium. They paid nearly $1.49 billion (about 46.2 billion rubles) for a 5.9% stake.

In 2016, through Millhouse, Abramovich became co-owner of a 34% stake in Azbuka Vkusa, a Russian chain of premium grocery stores. The stake was valued at 6–7 billion rubles (approximately $98–114 million).

In 2018, Abramovich’s British visa was not renewed. He then became an Israeli citizen.

In 2021, he became a citizen of Portugal as a descendant of Sephardic Jews.

In 2021, Abramovich became the owner of a 9.99% stake in Renaissance Insurance, one of Russia’s largest insurers. The value of the deal was not disclosed. In a subsequent initial public offering, he bought another 1.6 billion rubles (about $21 million) worth of shares.

Since 2022, Abramovich has been under sanctions from the UK, the European Union, Canada, Australia, Ukraine, Switzerland and New Zealand. As a result, he was forced to sell Chelsea Football Club in 2023.

According to some media reports, Abramovich’s permanent place of residence as of 2023 is Istanbul.

Deals and ventures

The sale of a 25% stake in Rusal to Oleg Deripaska in 2003 was valued at 1.578 billion dollars (about 47.34 billion rubles). Another 25% was sold a year later for about $450 million (13.5 billion rubles), according to Berezovsky’s estimate.
In 2007, Abramovich-controlled entities bought a 40% stake in Highland Gold Mining, Russia’s fourth-largest gold producer, for $400 million (about 10 billion rubles). In 2020, this stake was sold for $574 million (about 41.32 billion rubles).
In 2013, Abramovich bought a 23% stake in Truphone, an international telecommunications holding, for $112 million (about 3.58 billion rubles). In 2022, the company was sold for £1 after sanctions were imposed.
In 2020, Abramovich, along with other investors, bought shares in Yandex, one of Russia’s largest IT companies, for a total of $600 million (about 42.2 billion rubles), acquiring no more than 3.9% of the company’s shares.
Between 2015 and 2021, Abramovich invested $63 million (about 4.11 billion rubles) in at least 15 European IT “unicorns”, including fintech giant Revolut and car sales platform Cazoo.
In 2021, a consortium of investors including Abramovich invested $250 million (about 18.4 billion rubles) in streaming platform Ivi.

Achievements

In 2020 he became the most popular Russian billionaire in foreign media.
He topped Bloomberg’s list of the most generous philanthropists in 2013.
Named Russia’s richest businessman by Forbes in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
He was the winner of the Evening Standard’s London Personality of the Year 2003 award.
He received the Man of the Year award from the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia in 2004.
Awarded the Order of Honour for services to the development of Chukotka.
Received a personalized pistol from the Federal Tax Police of Russia.

Criticism and disputes

In 1992, Abramovich was implicated in a criminal case involving the embezzlement of oil products. According to media reports, fuel worth 3.8 million rubles (about $300,000) disappeared through the intermediary of his company. The businessman cooperated with the investigation and offered to paid damages, and the case was dropped.
In 2003, Abramovich’s Sibneft was set to merge with another major oil company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Yukos, but Khodorkovsky was arrested shortly after the deal was struck. Through a series of court cases, Abramovich’s organizations managed to recover the stake in Sibneft that had been transferred to Yukos.
In 2007, Boris Berezovsky sued Abramovich in the UK for $5.6 billion (about 140 billion rubles). The lawsuit alleged that in 2001 Abramovich had forced Berezovsky to sell his assets in Sibneft for far less than market value under threat of nationalization. Abramovich won the case in 2012.
In 2017, Abramovich attempted to obtain a residence permit in Switzerland, but law enforcement warned authorities that the entrepreneur was suspected of money laundering and had links to crime. Abramovich withdrew his application.
In 2021, Abramovich won a libel case in London over the book Putin’s People, which described him as “Putin’s wallet” and having acted at the behest of the Russian president.
It was reported that shortly before the outbreak of military action in Ukraine, Abramovich had transferred a substantial part of his fortune – some $4 billion (about 312 billion rubles) – to his children.

Attitudes to Russian–Ukrainian conflict

Abramovich was unofficially involved in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine after the start of military operations. He met with a Saudi Arabian prince to discuss an exchange of prisoners between the two sides. He was reportedly in contact with President Erdogan of Turkey and generally involved in facilitating communication between the Russian and Ukrainian sides.

Abramovich visited Lviv and Kyiv and met with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Abramovich has pledged to donate all the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea – nearly €5 billion (about 360 billion rubles) – to those affected by the hostilities. “I have instructed my team to set up a charitable foundation to which all net proceeds from the sale of the club will be donated. The fund will work for the benefit of all those affected by the war in Ukraine,” he said in a statement.

Community work

As Governor of Chukotka, Abramovich used his personal funds to raise living standards and prosperity in the region. He and his companies are reported to have spent $2.5 billion (tens of billions of rubles) on various social programmes and infrastructure projects.
Abramovich is a supporter of Jewish communities around the world. He is a regular patron of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre in Moscow. Over a 20-year period to 2018, he spent around $500 million (tens of billions of rubles) in supporting Jewish communities and combating antisemitism.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Abramovich provided free accommodation at the Millennium Hotel at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium for British National Health Service staff.
Abramovich’s marriage to Daria Zhukova has resulted in the establishment of landmark public projects, including the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, which cost $27 million (about 1.64 billion rubles), and a cultural public space on New Holland Island in Saint Petersburg, which cost 12.1 billion rubles (about $200 million) to renovate.

Additional information

Divorced with seven kids.

Source for information: Forbes.com, Bloomberg.com, Forbes.ru, Interfax.ru, Rbc.ru