Famous for
Founder of EuroChem, one of Russia’s leading mineral fertilizer producers, and Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK), the country’s leading coal mining corporation.
Assets
- From 2020, he owned 90% of EuroChem, one of the world’s largest producers of mineral fertilizers. The company’s net profit in 2021 was 210.4 billion rubles (about $2.768 billion).
- He also held a 92% stake in SUEK, Russia’s largest coal mining company at the time. Its net profit in 2021 was 107.7 billion rubles (about $1.417 billion).
- SUEK also incorporates the Siberian Generating Company (SGK), which operates 27 different power plants.
- In 2022, after sanctions were imposed, he ceased to be a direct beneficiary of his companies and left his positions at them.
- He owns the 119-metre yacht A, which is worth about $300 million (7.2 billion rubles at the time of purchase) and a 142-metre sailboat of the same name worth about €400 million (38.8 billion rubles), with other estimates putting the value at $580 million (49.3 billion rubles).
Interests and hobbies
Melnichenko collects impressionist paintings. His collection includes, for example, Claude Monet’s Water Lily Pond, which the entrepreneur bought in 2008 for $82 million (about 2 billion rubles).
Professional history
Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko was born on 8 March 1972 in Gomel, Belarusian SSR.
He studied at Moscow State University and later enrolled at the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics (now the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, or PRUE), graduating in 1997.
As a student, he set up a network of exchange offices in 1991. In 1993, he and his partners established MDM Bank on the basis of this network.
In 1997 he bought all the shares in MDM from the bank’s co-owners. At the same time, he met his future business partner, Sergei Popov.
Three years later, along with Popov, he founded the MDM Group, which began buying up Russian production assets in 2000–2002. These assets formed the basis for SUEK, Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) and EuroChem.
In 2004, Dmitry Pumpyansky became the third shareholder in TMK. Melnichenko and Popov left the company and sold their shares to him two years later.
In 2007, Melnichenko sold shares in MDM Bank to Popov in exchange for shares in EuroChem, becoming the majority owner of the company.
By 2013, Melnichenko had also bought out all of Popov’s shares in the SUEK coal mining company.
After dividing up the assets, Melnichenko gradually built his companies into major players in Russia’s chemical and energy industries.
In 2022, he was sanctioned by the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ukraine and lastly Switzerland, where he was living at the time.
He then moved to the United Arab Emirates, where he became a citizen in 2021. He also resigned from all positions in SUEK and EuroChem and ceased to be a beneficiary of his companies. His wife, who was later also sanctioned, became the controller of the trust that owns them.
Deals and ventures
- About $1 billion (29 billion rubles) was invested by the MDM group in 2000–2002 to create SUEK, Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) and EuroChem.
- Melnichenko and Popov received $1.3 billion (about 35.1 billion rubles) from the sale of a 33% stake in TMK to businessman Dmitry Pumpyansky in 2006
- Analysts estimate that Melnichenko could have paid his partner Popov about $2 billion (58 billion rubles) for most of his stake in SUEK in 2011. Two years later, Melnichenko bought out Popov’s remaining 16.78% for an undisclosed sum.
- SUEK paid $260 million (about 8 billion rubles) to buy the Murmansk Commercial Seaport for coal exports in 2012.
- A 78% stake in Sibeco, one of Siberia’s largest energy companies, was acquired by Melnichenko’s companies in 2018. The value of the transaction was not disclosed, but 100% of the company was estimated to be worth 18–24 billion rubles (about $290–390 million).
Achievements
- In 2023, he took first place in the Forbes ranking of Russia’s richest billionaires.
- He is the recipient of state awards: the Badge of Honour For Good Deeds and the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
Criticism and disputes
- In 2014, an unknown assailant attacked the Belgrade home of Melnichenko’s wife, a singer, model and Miss Yugoslavia laureate. An explosive device was thrown into the building. No one was injured in the incident. There was no information about the arrest of the attacker or their motives.
- In 2017, following a lawsuit by a shipbuilding company, authorities in Gibraltar seized Melnichenko’s yacht because the last tranche of the payment for the vessel had not arrived in the company’s accounts following disagreements. A judge later overturned the seizure.
- In 2022, Italian authorities seized Melnichenko’s 142-metre sailing yacht. The country also stripped the businessman of his state award, the Order of the Star of Italy.
- In 2023, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office filed a lawsuit against Melnichenko. It was reported that an act of corruption had been identified in the deal to buy the company Sibeco from the convicted ex-minister Abyzov. The lawsuit was later withdrawn and Melnichenko’s organizations donated a substantial sum to “charity in the field of education” to settle the case.
- Since 2023, Melnichenko’s representatives have been trying to challenge the Swiss authorities’ decision to revoke the businessman’s residence permit.
Attitudes to Russian–Ukrainian conflict
In March 2022, in an interview with Reuters, Melnichenko said: “As a Russian by nationality, Belarusian by birth and Ukrainian by blood, I feel great pain and confusion when I see brotherly nations fighting and dying.”
Later, in an interview with the Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche, in which he called the sanctions against him absurd, he also stated: “I only support a solution by diplomatic means. Peace must be restored as soon as possible. We need it urgently.”
Community work
- In 2016, the Andrey Melnichenko Foundation was established to support talented children and open free education centres, as well as to fight hunger and climate change.
- Melnichenko’s companies are recognised leaders in corporate philanthropy. In 2012 alone for example, SUEK implemented more than 150 social and charitable projects in the regions where it operates, allocating 1.6 billion rubles (about $24 million) to these causes.
- During the coronavirus pandemic, Melnichenko allocated 200 million rubles (about $2.8 million) to support medical centres in the regions where his companies operate.
- He is a board member of the Russian Olympians Foundation, which provides financial support to athletes, coaches and specialists who are members of Russian national teams in Olympic sports.
Additional information
Married, two children.
Source for information: Forbes.com, Bloomberg.com, Forbes.ru, Rbc.ru, Vedomosti.ru
