As one of the most talked-about figures, Mikhail Fridman has built a significant fortune. In this article, we dive deep into the assets and career highlights.
What is Mikhail Fridman's Net Worth?
With the proceeds from their sale of TNK-BP, Fridman and two of his Alfa Group partners helped co-found the Luxembourg-based international investment company LetterOne in 2013. Fridman became the company's chairman. LetterOne invests in such sectors as energy, telecommunications, and finance, with its subsidiaries including DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG.
After graduating from college, Fridman worked as a metallurgical design engineer at the state-owned Elektrostal Metallurgical Works until 1988. He went on to establish a spate of his own businesses after that, including ones for window washing, apartment rentals, and cigarette and perfume imports. Fridman also co-founded the photochemical importer Alfa-Photo withGerman Khanand Alexey Kuzmichev. In 1989, he co-founded the commodities trading firm Alfa-Eco and the investment firm Alfa Capital. These eventually became part of Alfa Group Consortium, which went on to become one of the largest privately-owned investment groups in Russia. Alfa Group has interests in oil and gas, banking, asset management, insurance, telecommunications, and food retail, among other areas. In the early 1990s, Fridman founded Alfa-Bank, which grew into one of Russia's largest private banks. Due to the increasing expansion and market monopoly of Alfa Group and Alfa-Bank over the ensuing years, Fridman was said to be in control of the majority of the economy and media in Russia.
Mikhail Fridman is a Russian-Israeli business tycoon and oligarch who has a net worth of $15 billion. That makes him one of the10 richest people in Russia. Mikhail Fridman co-founded the investment groups Alfa Group Consortium and LetterOne, and founded Alfa-Bank, one of thelargest private banks in Russia. He has also been involved with such companies as TNK-BP, Vimpelcom, and X5-Retail Group, and has been a member of such public-facing entities as the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mikhail Fridman was born on April 21, 1964 in Lviv, Soviet Ukraine into a Jewish family. After graduating from high school in 1980, he attended the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys, where he studied metallurgical engineering. Fridman graduated from that institution in 1986.
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In 1997, Fridman partnered withLen BlavatnikandViktor Vekselbergto buy the state-owned TNK oil company. Six years later, through their Alfa-Access-Renova consortium, the three men partnered with the British oil and gas company BP to form the joint venture TNK-BP. The merger led to TNK-BP becoming one of the largest private oil companies in the world. Fridman served as chairman of the company for nine years and as CEO for three years, stepping down in 2012. The following year, TNK-BP was acquired by the Russian state-owned energy company Rosneft.
In summary, the total wealth of Mikhail Fridman reflects strategic moves.
Disclaimer: All net worth figures are estimates based on public data.