You're reading: #42 Richest: Stepan Ivakhiv, 41

$295 million Married with one son Interests: dairy products, oil business

The stories of how the richest Ukrainians got started often can be worthy of a Hollywood movie.

This is exactly the case with Stepan Ivakhiv, who together with Ihor Yeremeev, owns the Kontinium Group of companies.

The friends and partners started their business back in 1992 making leather jackets.

Almost two decades later, their joint business consists of nearly 30 companies, most of which sell gasoline and milk products, led by West Oil Group, known for its network of 371 WOG gas stations and the Western Milk Group (WMG).

While the biggest news for Yeremeyev and Ivakhiv’s oil business is looking for an investor for the Kherson oil refinery, the major development for WMG has already happened.

The company in February merged with its main competitor, Halychyna, to create a company controlling no less than a third of western Ukraine’s dairy market. Ivakhiv and Yeremeyev own the biggest (60 percent) stake in the venture.

If the partners care to get together and celebrate, perhaps to mark their two decades as partners, they can book the posh Rixos Hotel in the resort town of Truskavets. After all, they own it.