Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov has purchased a five-story luxury apartment in Monaco for EUR471 million ($554 million), Bloomberg reported. According to the report, this is one of the largest known transactions involving the sale of a single residential property in history.
According to the publication, the property is located on the waterfront in the new prestigious Mareterra district, built on reclaimed land and set to open in 2024. The apartments are located in the Le Renzo complex and were purchased by the businessman’s holding company.
Bloomberg reports that the residence has 21 rooms and covers approximately 2,500 square meters, excluding balconies and terraces overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The article also mentions a private pool, a jacuzzi, and at least eight parking spaces.
The stated amount makes the deal a contender for the largest known residential sale in history, notes Bloomberg. The agency compares it to the recent sale of developer Nick Candy’s London mansion for over $350 million and the purchase of a New York penthouse by Citadel founder Ken Griffin for approximately $240 million.
The property is located in Monaco’s new luxury district, which is already positioned as one of the world’s most expensive residential developments. The Financial Times previously reported that prices in Mareterra reach EUR120,000 per square meter, and the project itself includes 110 apartments, four townhouses, and 10 villas.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Akhmetov remains Ukraine’s richest person. A Bloomberg report on the purchase emphasizes that the deal was made by a businessman whose fortune the agency estimates at more than $7 billion.
Rinat Akhmetov is the founder and owner of the SCM Group, whose key interests are concentrated in energy, metallurgy, telecommunications, the banking sector, real estate, and logistics.
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.
