Rinat Akhmetov, with a capital of $4.4bn, has topped the rating of Ukraine’s richest businessmen, the Forbes Ukraine website has reported.
According to the ranking, Akhmetov’s fortune dropped from $13.7bn to $4.4bn in 2022. His largest assets are the Metinvest company and the DTEK group. Akhmetov’s agricultural, energy and metallurgical businesses suffered from the war, in particular Azovstal and Ilyich Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol were lost.
The second and third place went to co-founders of the IT company Grammarly, Maxim Litvin and Oleksiy Shevchenko. The state of each decreased from $4 to $2,3 billion during the war.
Next in the ranking is Victor Pinchuk, whose fortune has decreased from $2.6 billion to $2.2 billion. His fortune is provided by his company Interpipe, real estate and cash, according to Forbes.
Konstantin Zhevago is at the bottom of the five richest people. His fortune dropped from $2.1 billion to $1.4 billion. His largest asset is the company Ferrexpo.
Also in the ranking are co-founders of the Epicenter K Group Alexander and Galina Geregi ($1.2bn), co-owner of fintech startup Revolut Vlad Yatsenko ($1.1bn), owner of Smart Holding Vadim Novinsky ($1bn), Hennadiy Boholyubov ($1bn) and Sergiy Tihipko ($870m).
The publication specifies that Ihor Kolomoyskyy, who was fourth in the ranking of the richest businessmen last year, was not included in the list in 2022 due to his loss of Ukrainian citizenship.
Businessman Rinat Akhmetov in Mariupol, where Metinvest’s metallurgical plants are located, announced his intention to continue investing heavily in the modernization and development of this largest Ukrainian mining and metallurgical holding.
“We continue to build, we continue to invest. This year, Metinvest will invest $1 billion in new production,” he said.
“We will build a new university, we will do everything in our power to ensure that there is a decent job in Mariupol, a decent salary, and most importantly, a happy life for people,” Akhmetov added.
The meeting is also attended by MP Vadim Novinsky, who is a co-owner of Metinvest.
Metinvest CEO Yuriy Ryzhenkov said that a decision, which had been made this year earlier than usual, to increase the holding’s salary by 10% on average from March 1 is made.
Ryzhenkov said that Metinvest has currently planned its investment program at $1.3-1.5 billion per year over the next three or four years, further investments will depend on how the company develops the green metallurgy.
The decarbonization trend is focusing on the steel industry, he said. However, there are already well-studied low-carbon technologies for direct reduced iron (DRI) and electrometallurgy (electric arc furnaces). Metinvest’s efforts in the field of decarbonization are connected not only with the climate, but also with renewal and entry into new markets (in terms of efficiency and product quality).
The updated technology strategy that the company continues to develop suggests different scenarios, but each of them includes a transition to low-carbon operations. The strategic goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 90% by 2050 using a phased approach with key milestones in 2030 and 2040. The final stages of the strategy are expected to include the use of hydrogen.
Metinvest is the largest mining and metallurgical holding in Ukraine. The group’s enterprises are located mainly in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Metinvest’s main shareholders are the SCM group (71.25%) and Smart Holding (23.75%), which jointly manage the company.
Rinat Akhmetov’s SCM Financial and Industrial Holding has sold its Parallel fuel filling station network, according to Encorr, an online industry publication citing sources.
According to the publication, the buyer was not an active player in the retail market, but either a wholesale trader or the owner of a small network wishing to develop this direction.
At the same time, the press service of SCM did not comment on the reliability of the report about the sale of their filling stations to the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
“We do not comment on rumors and assumptions about any deals,” SCM spokesman Yevhen Buzykin said.
Parallel sells its fuel at 60 fuel filling stations and gas stations in Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia regions and the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions controlled by Ukraine.
Parallel-M LTD is controlled by Parallel Nafta Ltd., a subsidiary of Rinat Akhmetov’s SCM Group.
Rinat Akhmetov with a $2.8 billion fortune is No.1 in the top 100 wealthiest businessmen of Ukraine, the total fortune of whom exceeded $31 billion, and compared with the peak 2013 the fortune of Akhmetov plunged by almost 83%, Forbes has said on its website. According to the ranking of the Forbes Ukraine publication, which was published first since 2016, the owner of Interpipe Group Victor Pinchuk with a $1.4 billion fortune came in at No. 2 and the fifth president of Ukraine, leader of the European Solidarity party Petro Poroshenko ($1.4 billion) is No. 3.
Poroshenko returned to the list of U.S. dollar billionaires after a five year break: in 2014, U.S. Forbes estimated his fortune at $1.3 billion.
Eight people in the list have a fortune no less than $1 billion, including two, who are the co-owners of the Epicenter hypermarket chain – Oleksandr and Halyna Hereha. The list of the U.S. dollar billionaires is locked by former owner of PrivatBank Ihor Kolomoisky.
The top 100 richest businessmen of Ukraine with the minimum net worth needed to be part of the exclusive club of $95 million is locked by the co-owner of the Tavria V supermarket chain Borys Muzalev.
Businessman Rinat Akhmetov will send UAH 300 million to fight the COVID-19 coronavirus, combining all the resources of the charity foundation, DTEK and Metinvest, FC Shakhtar and all the assets of his financial and industrial holding SCM to help Ukraine, according to the foundation.
“Coronavirus is a disaster that the modern world has encountered on such a scale, probably for the first time. I’m absolutely sure that in this situation everyone should think how exactly he can help Ukraine and Ukrainians,” Akhmetov said.
Under the decision of the founder, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation will purchase another 300,000 rapid tests for coronavirus for the whole of Ukraine, which will be transferred to the Stabilization Fund, initiated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, in the shortest possible time. In addition, at least 200 respiratory medical devices and other equipment will be purchased.
“In cooperation with the Ministry of Health, we will do everything possible to prevent an epidemic of coronavirus in the cities of our presence and throughout the country. Only by combining our efforts in the face of danger we can make Ukraine cope with all the challenges that it faces,” the businessman said.
The foundation recalled that earlier, according to Akhmetov’s decision, equipment for the effective treatment of coronavirus complications had already been purchased and handed over to the Ministry of Health: high-quality Servo-I Universal and Servo Air respiratory medical devices of Swedish manufacture and other equipment.
PJSC Ukrtelecom whose 92.79% stake belongs to LLC ESU, which is controlled by Rinat Akhmetov’s System Capital Management (SCM), will not pay dividends for 2017. “It was decided that the profit the company generated last year will be used to cover losses accumulated over previous periods,” Ukrtelecom’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
In addition, shareholders re-elected the supervisory board together with its head, Leonid Netudykhata, who once headed the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, was Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications, and worked as Chairman of Ukrtelecom’s Board of Directors in 1997-2000.
“The shareholders confirmed the top managers’ course towards further modernization of the company and an increase in the share of revenue from new IP services,” the press service said.
As reported, PJSC Ukrtelecom completed 2017 with a net profit of UAH 867 million, which was 44.3% more than in 2016. The operator’s net income over the year increased by 1.7%, to UAH 6.654 billion.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew by 4.9%, to UAH 1.867 million, EBITDA margin rose by 1.8 percentage points, to 28.1%. The company’s capital investment decreased by 0.7%, to UAH 948 million.
