Serhiy Kurchenko must be a business genius. He took Ukraine's top richest people list by storm this year, with a fortune estimated at $2.4 billion. Last year, Korrespondent weekly magazine left him out of its annual ranking because anyone barely heard of the young Kharkiv native.
This year, he takes the 7th place in the top 100 richest ranking released on Nov. 30. Earlier, he estimated his fortune at $400 million in interviews, which allowed him to buy substantial energy and media assets this year.
Kurchenko pushed back another Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro
Firtash ($2.3 billion) to the 8th place. Rinat Akhmetov remains the country’s
richest with an estimated net worth of $18.3 billion, according to the list.
There have been several reshuffles in the top positions of the ranking – Hennadiy
Bogolyubov (2nd place – $3.9 billion) eclipsed his business partner Ihor Kolomoisky
(3rd place – $3.46 billion), and Viktor Pinchuk (4th place – $2.98 billion)
topped newly-minted Ukrainian citizen Vadym Novynsky (5th place – $2.8
billion). The threshold for entering the list was $72 million, $32 million more
than in 2012.
Just a year ago nobody
even heard of Kurchenko, who was 27 at the time. The first comprehensive mention on him came in a
Forbes Ukraine investigation that was published in November 2012. Kurchenko now
owns the publication as well as 50 other media outlets, including Korrespondent
magazine.
He has since purchased
the Kharkiv Metalist football team and the Odesa Oil Refinary. In the beginning
of 2013 he established the East European Petrol and Energy company VETEK
running 150 gas-filling stations in Ukraine and a network of 170 in Germany.
Kurchenko also admitted
ownership of GazUkraina-2009, a fuel trading company that allegedly
received government support, according to interview he gave to Forbes Ukraine
magazine. He also bought UMH holding, one of Ukraine’s biggest media groups
that includes Korrespondent and Forbes Ukraine publications among 50 other
brands. He reportedly paid $340 million. The deal was closed on Nov.5.
The situation with
Kurchenko’s media assets, though, doesn’t seem to be as good as his finances.
About 15 journalists, a third of the editorial staff, have left Forbes Ukraine
since July when the new owner and sale was announced. While at
least three journalists, including former chief editor Vladimir Fedorin left
right away, twelve more exited the publication on Nov.13 in protest to what
they said were chief editor Mikhail Kotov’s censorship attempts.
Moreover,
around 20 journalists, including print chief editor Vitaly Sych and online chief
editor Yulia McGuffie announced they’re exiting Korrespondent magazine on
Nov.29. Some journalists interviewed by the Kyiv Post privately on that day
confirmed that the main reason for leaving was infringements on editorial
independence and adoption of a pro-government stance.
Korrespondent releases the top 100 richest study together with Kyiv-based investment house Dragon Capital, which conducted the valuations.
Kyiv Post staff writer
Anastasia Forina can be reached at [email protected].
