Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev: biography, family

Dmitry Evgenievich Rybolovlev is a Russian businessman, investor and philanthropist. He owns a potash producer, Uralkali. In 2011 he became the owner of the majority of shares and the president of the French football club AS Monaco. 25-year-old daughter of Dmitry Rybolovleva Catherine is a famous secular lioness.

Origin and years of study

So, how did Dmitry Rybolovlev begin his life? His biography began quite normally. He was born in Perm in 1966. His parents were doctors, and he graduated from the family medicine tradition at the Perm Medical Institute, becoming a cardiologist in 1990. Even in his student years, Dmitry Rybolovlev married Elena, one of her classmates, and in 1989 their first daughter Katya was born to the couple (pictured below).

Dima Rybolovlev started his career as a cardiologist-resuscitator, but he gained his present vocation in business. By his own admission, he was inspired by the novel The Financier by Theodor Dreiser, who tells the story of the man who made his first fortune in Philadelphia selling soap, and then became a successful investor in the stock market.

At the beginning of a business career

Rybolovlev's first business project was medical: together with his father, Yevgeny, he created a company called Magnetics, which offered forms of alternative treatment using magnetic fields - the so-called. "Magnetotherapy". It was the time of bartering. Customers preferred to pay the firm Rybolovlev not with money, but with their industrial products or foodstuffs, forcing them to look for buyers for them. Filling his hand on resale, Rybolovlev Dmitry earned his first $ 1 million.

In 1992, Rybolovlev became the first businessman in the Perm Region to receive a certificate from the Russian Ministry of Finance, giving him the right to deal with securities, and in the same year he opened an investment company. In 1994, he founded a bank, acquired stakes in several industrial enterprises in Perm.

In 1995, Rybolovlev sold most of his shares and concentrated capital in the company "Uralkali", working in the potash industry. It cost him much to gain control over this enterprise. While the ownership rights were being drawn up in 1995-97, Rybolovlev managed to stay in the pre-trial detention center for almost a year on charges of contract killing, but in the end was acquitted and was able to finally begin the reorganization of Uralkali.

Development of Uralkali

Over the next 15 years, Dmitry Rybolovlev focused on the development of his main asset and eventually turned it into a large enterprise by world standards. Completely changing the management team and setting as a priority the achievement of increasing labor productivity, he achieved that from 2000 to 2007, Labor productivity on "Uralkali" increased by 2.5 times.

In 2005, Uralkali and the Belarusian producer of potash fertilizers Belaruskali (with a production volume 1.5 times more than Uralkali) combined their trade flows with the help of one trader, the Belarusian Potash Company (BPC), in which Rybolovlev became executive director. Over the next three years, potash prices increased more than fivefold, and Uralkali began to control almost a third of its world exports. In 2007, a very successful IPO of shares of Uralkali on the London Stock Exchange was held, which was evaluated by financial FII as one of the most successful Russian primary placements.

Almost detective story with flooding

In 2006, which was initially assigned to an IPO, one of the Uralkali mines was flooded. The newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda estimated the enterprise's losses at several hundred million dollars. But the most interesting is the other. It turns out that a few days before the accident, Dmitry Rybolovlev canceled the placement of shares on the stock exchange. If this did not happen, the newly placed shares would fall sharply in value, and the losses would be huge. After eliminating the consequences of the accident in 2007, the placement was still held.

In 2008, Rybolovlev started a conflict with the Russian government, represented by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who initiated an investigation into the accident to determine the guilt of the company's management. Some observers made parallels with the Yukos affair. But in the final analysis, the amount of damages was agreed upon, and Rybolovlev retained his ownership of Uralkali.

Parting with your favorite asset

In June 2010, Rybolovlev sold a 53% stake in Uralkali to a group of Russian investors: Suleiman Kerimov (25%), Alexander Nesis (15%) and Filaret Galchev (13.2%). The cost of the deal was not disclosed, but it is reported that it amounted to about $ 5.3 billion.

In December 2010, Uralkali announced that it had plans to purchase another large potash enterprise, Silvinit, and the formation of the largest potash producer in the world, based on the two companies. The merger was completed in July 2011. By that time, in April 2011, Rybolovlev had already issued the sale of the remaining 10% of its shares in Uralkali to one of its new co-owners, Alexander Nesis. Thus, he received in his hands pure capital in cash that would allow him to spend the second half of his life in accordance with his ideas about it.

Investments in the "Bank of Cyprus"

In September 2010, Rybolovlev bought a 9.7% stake in the Bank of Cyprus. This was followed by his continued personal acquaintance with the country, the result of which was the decision to support the construction of the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Limassol.

On March 25, 2013, the Eurogroup of the EU agreed with the government of Cyprus that the "Bank of Cyprus" will take on its balance the remains of "Laiki Bank." To finance the transaction and keep the Bank of Cyprus from bankruptcy it was also decided that deposits with amounts in excess of € 100,000 will be reduced by 90%. In exchange, the owners of accounts will receive shares of the "Bank of Cyprus", thus diluting the share of Rybolovlev in it.

Hobbies for football

In December 2011, the trust fund, acting on behalf of the daughter of Catherine Rybolovlev, bought 66% of the shares of the AS Monaco FC football club, which is in Monaco, but plays in the French football league. The remaining 34% of the club's shares belong to the ruling princely family of Monaco Grimaldi, and the purchase of the club by Rybolovlev was approved by Prince of Monaco Albert II. Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev was subsequently appointed president of the club.

After this appointment, "Monaco" has become one of the most lavish clubs in European football, spending huge sums on players, including Falcao, James Rodriguez and João Moutinho.

In March 2015, in an interview with Nice Matin, Rybolovlev reaffirmed his long-term commitment to the club.

Philanthropic activity

Rybolovlev is an active benefactor. He supported the restoration of the building of the Oranienbaum Palace near St. Petersburg; Finances the "Support Fund of the Russian Olympians" and the restoration of the Zachatiev Monastery in Moscow. Rybolovlev donated € 17.5 million for the restoration of the Nativity Cathedral of the Mother of God of this monastery. He also financed the restoration of the iconostasis of the Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord in the Belogorsky Monastery of St. Nicholas. Apparently, to promote the re-creation of the former beauty of historical and spiritual monuments of Russia became the life goal of such a person as Dmitry Rybolovlev.

The oligarch's personal life did not work out

Currently, he is going through a divorce process, which is rarely discussed publicly. In April 2012, Rybolovlev's spokesman admitted that "he was not an exemplary husband." Mr. Rybolovlev never denied his adultery, but his wife knew about it for many years and passed them passively. "

Ex-wife Dmitry Rybolovleva earlier rejected the amount of compensation offered by the ex-spouse $ 800 million. She wanted more money, and in May 2014 in Geneva, the court awarded her $ 4.8 billion in compensation. Nevertheless, the court also ruled that trusts, Created for their daughters, are inviolable for lawsuits. How many children does Dmitry Rybolovlev have? Daughter Catherine, born in 1989, and her sister Anna, born in 2001, are very wealthy people thanks to her father.

Nevertheless, the court included the totality of assets transferred to the Rybolov's trustees of the two Cypriot trusts in the calculation of the property of the spouses, which should be divided equally between them in accordance with Swiss law. He also granted Helen Rybolovlev the right to have custody of the youngest daughter Anna, and also transferred to her various properties outside the trusts, works of art and antiques.

At the same time, lawyers billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev said that they are going to appeal the decision of the court. And Mark Bonnant, a lawyer representing Elena Rybolovlev, speaking in an interview in December 2014, admitted that the judicial decision adopted in May 2014 did not represent a final decision, and that this "lengthy process" would be delayed until a decision agreed upon by both parties was reached.

In June 2015, Rybolovlev's lawyers successfully appealed the decision of 2014. The Geneva court reversed the earlier decision, reducing compensation to 604 million Swiss francs, which is much less than the 800 million Swiss francs that Rybolovlev repeatedly offered to ex-wife. However, under the last decision, she received two property in Geneva.

Heal the spiritual wounds inflicted by his divorce, Rybolovlev actively surfs, especially in Hawaii.

In the list of billionaires of Forbes magazine for 2015, it is listed as the 156th number in the world with a net capital of $ 8.5 billion.