Russian billionaire Rybolovlev Dmitry: biography, family

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:54

Rybolovlev Dmitry Evgenievich is a Russian businessman, investor and philanthropist. He owns the potash producer Uralkali. In 2011 he became the owner of the majority of shares and the president of the French football club AS Monaco. Dmitry Rybolovlev's 25-year-old daughter Ekaterina is a well-known socialite.

Origin and years of study

So, how did Dmitry Rybolovlev start his life. His biography began quite normally. He was born in Perm in 1966. His parents were doctors, and he graduated from the Perm Medical Institute by family tradition, becoming a cardiologist in 1990. Back in his student years, Dmitry Rybolovlev married Elena, one of his classmates, and in 1989 the couple had their first daughter, Katya (pictured below).

Dima Rybolovlev began his career as a cardiologist-resuscitator, but he found his true calling in business. By his own admission, he was inspired on this path by Theodore's novelDreiser "The Financier", which tells the story of a man who made his first fortune in Philadelphia selling soap and then became a successful stock market investor.

Early business career

Rybolovlev's first business project was medical: together with his father, Evgeny, he created a company called Magnetics, which offered forms of alternative treatment using magnetic fields - the so-called. "magnetotherapy". It was the time of barter dominance. Clients preferred to pay Rybolovlev's company not with money, but with industrial products or food products they had, forcing them to look for buyers for them on their own. Rybolovlev Dmitry earned his first $1 million after getting his hands on the resale.

In 1992, Rybolovlev became the first businessman in the Perm region to receive a certificate from the Russian Ministry of Finance giving him the right to deal with securities, and in the same year he opened an investment company. In 1994, he founded a bank, acquired shares in several industrial enterprises in Perm.

In 1995, Rybolovlev sold most of his shares and concentrated his capital in the Uralkali enterprise operating in the potash industry. It cost him dearly to gain control of this enterprise. While the property rights were being formalized in 1995-97, Rybolovlev managed to serve almost a year in a Perm pre-trial detention center on charges of contract murder, but in the end he was acquitted and was finally able to start reorganizing Uralkali.

Development of Uralkali

WithinFor the next 15 years Dmitry Rybolovlev focused on the development of his main asset and eventually turned it into a large enterprise by world standards. By completely changing the management team and setting as a priority the achievement of increased labor productivity, he achieved that from 2000 to 2007. labor productivity at Uralkali increased 2.5 times.

In 2005, Uralkali and Belarusian potash producer Belaruskali (with a production capacity 1.5 times that of Uralkali) combined their trade flows with the help of a single trader, the Belarusian Potash Company (BKK), in which Rybolovlev became the executive director. Over the next three years, potash prices more than quintupled, and Uralkali controlled nearly a third of its global exports. In 2007, a very successful IPO of Uralkali shares on the London Stock Exchange took place, which was rated by financial FIA as one of the most successful Russian initial public offerings.

Almost a detective story with flooding

In 2006, the year the IPO was originally set for, one of Uralkali's mines was flooded. The Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper estimated the company's losses at several hundred million dollars. But the most interesting is something else. It turns out that a few days before this accident, Dmitry Rybolovlev canceled the placement of shares on the stock exchange. If this did not happen, then the newly placed shares would have fallen sharply in price, and the losses would have been huge. After the aftermath of the accident was eliminated in 2007, the placement nevertheless took place.

In 2008, Rybolovlev began a conflict with the Russian government represented by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who initiated an investigation into the accident in order to determine the guilt of the company's management. Some observers drew parallels with the Yukos case. But in the end, the amount of damages was agreed, and Rybolovlev retained his ownership of Uralkali.

Parting with your favorite asset

In June 2010, Rybolovlev sold a 53% stake in Uralkali to a group of Russian investors: Suleiman Kerimov (25%), Alexander Nesis (15%) and Filaret Galchev (13.2%). The value of the deal was not disclosed, but was reported to be around $5.3 billion.

In December 2010, Uralkali announced that it had plans to buy another large potash company, Silvinit, and form the largest potash producer in the world on the basis of these two companies. The merger was completed in July 2011. By that time, in April 2011, Rybolovlev had already formalized the sale of the remaining 10% of his shares in Uralkali to one of its new co-owners, Alexander Nesis. Thus, he got into his hands a net capital in the form of money, which will allow him to spend the second half of his life in accordance with his ideas about it.

Investment in Bank of Cyprus

In September 2010, Rybolovlev bought a 9.7% stake in the Bank of Cyprus. This was followed by hislong personal acquaintance with the country, which resulted in the decision to support the construction of the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Limassol.

On March 25, 2013, the EU Eurogroup agreed with the Cypriot government that the "Bank of Cyprus" will take on its balance sheet the balance of "Like Bank". To finance the deal and save the Bank of Cyprus from bankruptcy, it was also decided that deposits exceeding €100,000 would be reduced by 90%. In exchange, the account holders will receive shares in the Bank of Cyprus, thus diluting Rybolovlev's stake in it.

Passion for football

In December 2011, a trust fund, acting on behalf of Ekaterina Rybolovlev's daughter, bought a 66% stake in AS Monaco FC, a football club based in Monaco but playing in the French Football League. The remaining 34% of the club's shares belong to the ruling princely Grimaldi family of Monaco, and the purchase of the club by Rybolovlev was approved by Prince Albert II of Monaco. Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev was subsequently named president of the club.

Since this appointment, AS Monaco has become one of the most generous clubs in European football, spending huge sums on players including Falcao, James Rodriguez and João Moutinho.

In March 2015, in an interview with Nice Matin, Rybolovlev reaffirmed his long-term commitment to the club.

Philanthropic activities

Rybolovlev is an active benefactor. He supported the restoration of the palace buildingOranienbaum near St. Petersburg; finances the Russian Olympians Support Fund and the restoration of the Zachatievsky Monastery in Moscow. Rybolovlev donated €17.5 million to restore the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God of this monastery. He also financed the restoration of the iconostasis of the Cathedral of the Ex altation of the Holy Cross in the Belogorsk Monastery of St. Nicholas. Apparently, to contribute to the restoration of the former beauty of the historical and spiritual monuments of Russia has become the life goal of such a person as Dmitry Rybolovlev.

The personal life of the oligarch did not work out

He is currently going through a divorce process that he rarely discusses publicly. In April 2012, Rybolovlev's spokesman admitted that "he was not an exemplary husband. Mr. Rybolovlev never denied his infidelities, but his wife had known about it for years and passively accepted them."

Dmitry Rybolovlev's ex-wife had previously rejected the $800 million compensation offered by her ex-husband. She wanted more, and in May 2014 a court in Geneva awarded her a compensation of $4.8 billion. However, the court also ruled that trusts created for their daughters were immune from lawsuits. How many children does Dmitry Rybolovlev have? Daughter Ekaterina, born in 1989, and her sister Anna, born in 2001, are very we althy people thanks to their father.

However, the court included the totality of assets transferred to the Fishing Trustees of two Cypriot trusts in the calculation of the property of the spouses, which should bedivided in equal parts between them in accordance with Swiss law. He also gave Elena Rybolovleva custody of her youngest daughter, Anna, and gave her ownership of various properties outside of trusts, fine art and antiques.

Then the lawyers of billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev said they were going to appeal against the court order. And Mark Bonnant, a lawyer representing Elena Rybolovleva, speaking in an interview in December 2014, acknowledged that the May 2014 court ruling does not represent a final decision, and that this "lengthy process" will drag on until a solution agreed upon by both parties is reached.

In June 2015, Rybolovlev's lawyers successfully challenged the 2014 decision. The Geneva court overturned the earlier ruling, reducing the release clause to 604 million Swiss francs, which is significantly less than the 800 million Swiss francs that Rybolovlev repeatedly offered ex- wife. However, according to the latest decision, she received the ownership of two properties in Geneva.

Healing the emotional wounds inflicted on him by the divorce process, Rybolovlev is actively surfing, especially in Hawaii.

On the Forbes 2015 Billionaire List, he is number 156 in the world with a net worth of $8.5 billion