Eduard Shufrin and his co-owners of Zaporizhstal steel mill pulled off a daring move by pulling out of a deal to sell the top-five Ukrainian steelmaker to Rinat Akhmetov, the country’s richest man.
Instead a controlling stake went to Russian investors, backed by state-owned Vneshekonombank, and Akhmetov got a $50 million pay-off as compensation for missing out on the deal.
At the end of 2008, Shifrin split his business with his partner, Soviet-born Canadian national Alexander Shnaider.
In Russia, Shifrin was left with a portfolio of 1.6 million square meters of commercial, residential and hotel property.
The largest projects were frozen, owing to a lack of resources.
The Canadian and Dominican side of the business went to Shnaider. In Ukraine they sold the MD Retail chain and the Kharkiv-based distribution company Ns Ltd.
According to Forbes magazine, Shifrin resides in London, where he busies himself with maintaining relationships with Ukraine’s elite, philanthropy in the Jewish community and leisure sports like water-skiing and horseback riding.
The Ukrainian native hails from Dnipropetrovsk and earned a PhD in metallurgy from Moscow’s Institute of Steel and Alloys.
You can also highlight the text and press Ctrl + Enter
Comments (0)