Mikhail Fridman (born April 21, 1964) is a prominent Russian businessman of Jewish origin. He is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Alfa Group, one of the largest private equity firms in Russia. In 2014, Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $15.6 billion, making him the second richest person in Russia. How did Mikhail Fridman achieve such a position? Biography, the family in which he was born and raised - that's what will help the reader understand the origins of his current success.
Childhood and youth
The biography of Mikhail Fridman began like millions of other Soviet boys. He was born and raised in Lvov, Ukraine. His parents, no longer young, were engineers, and his father was awarded the USSR State Prize for the development of navigation devices for military aircraft. They were very happy when the youngest son was born in the family. Mikhail Fridman from childhood was distinguished by a zeal for science. During his studies, he repeatedly won school olympiads.in physics and mathematics.
In Lviv, Misha graduated from high school in 1980. And then - to Moscow … He enters the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys. Many successful people got married while still students. Mikhail Fridman did not escape this fate either. His wife, Olga from Irkutsk, was Mikhail's classmate.
In his student years, an entrepreneurial vein also appears for the first time. He becomes the organizer of youth discos, invites musicians and bards to them and pays them fees.
Starting a business career
After graduating from MISiS in 1986, Mikhail Fridman began working at the Elektrostal plant in the town of the same name near Moscow. But his time was already approaching, and when it came, Friedman did not miss the advantageous moment.
In 1988, he started his entrepreneurial career by creating a window cleaning cooperative with a group of friends from the institute, where he used students from different universities, providing them with the opportunity to earn additional income.
How Alfa Group started
Together with German Khan, Alexei Kuzmichev and Pyotr Aven, Mikhail Fridman founded the Alfa-Photo trading company in 1989, which was engaged in the sale of photographic materials, computers, and photocopiers that had just appeared on the Soviet market.
Soon, having accumulated initial capital in the office equipment trade, Fridman switches to the basic product for all Russian oligarchs -oil products. The tool for their transshipment abroad for our hero is the Soviet-Swiss company Alfa-Eco, the prototype of the future Alfa Group.
The development of the company follows the classic pattern for Russian capital: metal products are added to the commodity flows sent abroad, the volume of operations reaches such a level that Fridman's business structure in 1991 has its own Alfa-Bank, whose board of directors he chairs.
Privatization of TNKs – the peak of Fridman and K's business career°
Actually, this story deserves a separate study. But briefly it looks like this. In the mid-90s, the then Russian government "teared" to shreds the state enterprise Rosneft, the successor to the USSR Minneftegazprom. The most tidbits associated with oil production (Nizhnevartovsk and Tyumen oil fields) and oil refining (Ryazan refinery) are distinguished from Rosneft. They are combined into a newly created enterprise, which becomes the Tyumen Oil Company (TNK), then still a state-owned enterprise. A privatization competition is immediately announced with three firms - contenders for TNK, which are headed by outstanding "Russian" businessmen of that time: Mikhail Fridman (Alfa Group), V. Vekselberg (Renova) and L. Blavatnik (Access Industries). To make it easier to interact with each other during the privatization process, they unite in the Alfa Access Renova (AAR) consortium, which in 1997 becomes the owner of the TNK for the next sixteen years.
Tyumen Oil Company: 16-year run in circles
During this time, the owners have made many "fateful" decisions. First, in 2003, they merged with the British Petroleum Corporation into the joint structure of TNK-BP, then in 2008 they quarreled to death with British partners, so that the London High Court even “resolved” this quarrel.
Finally, it became clear to the Russian leadership that during the global economic crisis there would be no sense from the owners of TNK-BP, and in 2013 the same state-owned company Rosneft bought out their shares in the long-suffering enterprise from British and Russian owners. No one will tell Russian citizens how much the Russian state was paid in 1997 for the privatization of TNK Fridman - Vekselberg - Blavatnik. But how much Rosneft laid out for its purchase in 2012-13 is well known: the British spent $16.65 billion, and the AAR consortium - as much as $27.73 billion, despite the fact that the partners owned approximately 50% of the shares of the combined company.
How the money was distributed among themselves Friedman - Vekselberg - Blavatnik nobody knows. But judging by the fact that the first of them founded a new business in Europe with the proceeds from the sale - the L1 Group investment group, he did not remain in the loser.
What is Friedman's business empire today?
Firstly, this is an investment group, which today is managed by Alfa-Bank (the largest Russian private bank), including such business structures as Alfa Capital Management,Rosvodokanal, AlfaStrakhovanie and A1 Group. The group owns the mobile operators MegaFon and VimpelCom, the Pyaterochka and Perekrestok retail chains.
In addition, Mikhail Fridman is the chairman of the L1 Group, headquartered in Luxembourg. The business of this international investment group is focused on telecommunications assets and the energy sector of the economy. It includes two main divisions: "L1 Energy" and "L1 Technologies". Friedman is also a member of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche DEA AG Erdoel, Hamburg, bought by L1 Energetika in 2015.
By the way, the board of directors of the L1 Group includes old friends - Fridman's partners, with whom he started back in the late 80s: Kuzmichev, Khan, and also P. Aven, a former minister of the Gaidar government of Russia.
Purchasing assets in the North Sea
In March 2015, the L1 Group acquired the German oil company RWE Dea for over £5 billion. It owns 12 active oil and gas fields in the North Sea and oil fields elsewhere. The deal has been objected to by the British government, which believes it runs counter to sanctions restrictions on Russian firms in connection with events in Ukraine. L1 Group intends to create a new company to launch production in new oil fields, led by the former head of British Petroleum, Lord Brown.
On March 4, 2015, British Minister for Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey gave Friedman a one-week deadline toconvince the UK government not to force it to sell oil and gas assets acquired in the North Sea. How this story ended is still unknown, but given the experience and resourcefulness of Mikhail Fridman in business processes, you can be sure that he will find a way out this time as well.
Public activities in Jewish organizations
Friedman is an active supporter of Jewish initiatives in Russia and other European countries. In 1996, he was one of the founders of the Russian Jewish Congress, and is currently a member of the Presidium of the RJC. He is a major contributor to the work of the European Jewish Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of European Jewry and the promotion of tolerance and reconciliation on the continent.
Friedman, along with Stan Polovts and three colleagues, Russian Jewish billionaires Alexander Knaster, Peter Aven and Herman Khan, founded the Genesis Group, whose goal is to develop and improve Jewish identity among Jews around the world. Each year, the Genesis Group Award is given to laureates who have achieved excellence and international fame in embodying the character of the Jewish people through commitment to national values.
At the first annual award ceremony in Jerusalem in 2014, Friedman told the audience that it was designed to inspire a new generation of Jews through the outstanding professional achievements of the winners, their contribution to human culture and commitment to Jewish values.
Membership and activities ininternational and Russian public structures
Since 2005, Friedman has been Russia's representative to the Council on Foreign Relations, a non-profit American organization of the global establishment, whose goal is to spread the American version of democracy around the world.
Friedman is a member of numerous Russian public organizations, including the Public Chamber of Russia, the Board of Directors of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the National Council for Corporate Governance.
He is an active supporter of the national literary award "Big Book" and a member of the board of the "Center for the Support of Russian Literature", focused on the implementation of cultural programs, the promotion of the ideals of humanism and respect for the values of Russian culture.
Mikhail Fridman: personal life
He divorced his first wife Olga quite a long time ago, more than 10 years ago. How many children does Mikhail Fridman have? Children from the first marriage are two daughters: Ekaterina (b. 1998) and Laura (b. 1995). The girls were born and lived with their mother in Paris, where they graduated from an American school. Fully ensuring a comfortable existence for his ex-wife and daughters, Friedman himself had almost no contact with them.
What does Mikhail Fridman's family look like now? For several years now, he has been living in a civil marriage with Oksana Ozhelskaya, a former employee of Alfa-Bank. According to some reports, they also have two children.
