Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Rinat Akhmetov Europe’s richest man

alth: $31.1 billion

Wealth last year: $ 15.6 billion

Field of Activity: Metallurgy, finance, coal, energy, telecommunications, food industry, mass media and other.


Last year’s prediction by Korrespondent has come true. According to the estimates of Kyiv-based investment bank Dragon Capital, Rinat Akhmetov is the richest man on the territory of the former Soviet Union.

A year ago, when Korrespondent put together a list of the richest Ukrainians, it predicted that the owner of System Capital Management (SCM) would outshine the rest. Still, not a single Nostradamus could suppose that in the year of a global financial crisis and a crash of the world stock markets, Akhmetov would become the richest man in Europe.

In 2008, Akhmetov’s estimated wealth surpassed the assets of IKEA’s founder, Ingvar Kamprad, by more over $100 million. Kamprad was formerly the wealthiest European, but his fortune dropped $2 billion last year.

How did the current European wealth champion manage to double his assets in one year? Global market trends helped: Capitalization of power and telecommunication companies grew significantly, as did prices on raw materials (coal, iron ore) and metallurgical factories. The falling US dollar also helped, a bit.

The next rating of Russian and European billionaires will show more accurately where Akhmetov stands in relation to them, but the trend can't be explained by the falling dollar and surging commodity prices alone. Akhmetov ranks amongst the richest of the world.

It takes two and a half pages to list companies in his business empire. The range is impressive, with 25 companies in ore mining and smelting, 12 companies in the energy sector, five in the financial sector, six mass media companies, four machine engineering factories, one company in telecommunications and one involved in oil wholesale-retail.

All this capitalism is crowned by his football club, Donetsk-based Shakhtar, which does not bring many dividends, but pleases the eye and thrills the soul of its president, Akhmetov.