While the names at the very top of Ukraine’s rich list hardly seem different from year to year, changes do happen – new names appear, others drop off, wild swings in net worth take place.
If before the global economic crisis being rich in Ukraine meant you had to own steel mills, banks or develop real estate, now the main path to riches appears to lie in the country’s fertile soil, with agriculture leaders moving swiftly up the table.
The crisis hit global demand for steel and Ukraine’s burgeoning middle classes hard.
Those who took out loans have struggled to pay them back, hurting banks and demand for real estate.
Banks haven’t been willing to, or had the means, to make loans.
As a result, few people have had enough money to buy new apartments and cars.
The new kids on the rich block are the agriculture captains.
Oleksiy Vadatursky, owner of grain giant Nibulon, parachuted into 9th and the exclusive billionaires club with more than $1 billion in net worth. Ivan Huta, owner of agribusiness giant Mriya, broke into the top 15 with $754 million, closely followed by egg king Oleh Bakhmatyuk in 16th with $700 million.
Agriculture companies are gaining increasing attention from investors on foreign stock exchanges and attracting credits.
With talk at the highest levels of government that the moratorium on land privatization will be lifted in 2011, demand for food products still high and the huge amount of slack in Ukraine’s system, the country’s top farmers are set only to grow and grow.
Things aren’t so good if you construct cars or buildings.
Back in 2008 Tariel Vasadze, owner of UkrAVTO, sped into 14th place with $2.05 billion.
This year, he only just crawled onto the list in 50th position with $230 million.
Car sales have plummeted during the crisis, down an eye-watering 70 percent in 2009. But Vasadze is surviving – UkrAVTO turned a profit of Hr 5.2 million – and people can’t drive around in those Soviet-era Ladas forever.
Not on this year’s list is Mykola Lagun, owner of Delta Bank. In 2008, he was in 39th with $524 million.
The bankers who have best been able to hold their positions on the list are former bankers, such as Leonid Chernovetsky and Sergiy Tigipko, who sold their assets at the perfect time, just before the crisis struck.
Real estate remains in the doldrums, with XXI Century owner and 2008 high-flier Lev Partskhaladze (then 37th with $580 million) off the list and Mykola Tolmachev (then 38th with $570 million) clinging on in 44th position this year with $286 million.
Steel, the must-have commodity that propelled many of the richest to their fortunes, has made a bit of a comeback this year, boosting the figures for the nation’s top metal-men after last year’s drop.
Of course, it helps if, like Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov, you can pick up one of the country’s top-three steel mills MMK Illicha at a more than $1 billion discount, according to analyst estimates.
One trend is clear, which isn’t really anything new: to push up the list and stay there, it helps to have a seat at the top tables of government, or the ear of someone there.
