Metals tycoon Vladimir Lisin, the richest Russian, is ranked 32nd in Forbes' annual list of the planet's wealthiest people, as surging commodity prices pushed Moscow a step closer to regaining its title as the billionaire capital of the world.
Moscow moved up one notch to become the city with the world's second largest billionaire population, according to Forbes' list, released Thursday. It is home to 50 people on the list, a number second only to that of New York's 60 business titans and above London's 32 magnates.
Moscow held the billionaire title in 2007, before commodity prices crashed in a meltdown that erased much of the value of the country's biggest corporations.
Overall, Russia — like last year — was home to the third largest number of billionaires, whose ranks swelled to 62 from 32 in the previous ranking after some of the drop-offs returned. The country lagged behind the United States with 403 billionaires, or 40 percent of the world's total, and China, where the number reached 64.
Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim Helu won the top spot in the ranking with an estimated $53.5 billion, pushing Bill Gates and Warren Buffet down to the second and third place with $53 billion and $47 billion, respectively. The two richest Americans have invested billions in charity.
Rich Russians tend to become richer in sync with increases in commodity prices, chiefly for oil and metals, said Steve Forbes, the magazine's editor-in-chief, adding that the Russian government took greater pains to help the respective industries, compared with the U.S. government.
“There's more cooperation in Russia between the government and big business, especially in commodities,” he said, RIA-Novosti reported Thursday.
But Lisin's success, with a net worth of $15.8 billion, is a far cry from Russia's recent lustrous past. Investor Oleg Deripaska, whose main asset is a stake in aluminum producer United Company RusAl, set a record in 2008, ranking in as the world's ninth-richest man, with a net worth of $28 billion. He has since fallen to the 42nd spot after his debt-laden business empire took a severe battering in the economic debacle.
Investor Mikhail Prokhorov, who last year was ranked Russia's richest man and 40th worldwide, has seen his wealth increase as well. Prokhorov's net worth moved up to 13.4 billion this year from $9.5 billion, but it secured the 39th spot worldwide, making him Russia's second richest man.
The Forbes list, showing dozens of Russia's elite regaining their billionaire status, echoes an earlier ranking compiled by the Finans magazine last month. It put the total number of billionaires at 77, up from 49 the year before.
Forbes draws information for the annual rankings from the market value of publicly traded companies — using such valuations to put a price tag on similar privately held firms — and from looking at business owners' property, other investments and debt. The magazine also asks the prospective entrants to share their financial records and relies on regional investment companies to dig up some of the facts.
Senior Forbes editor Luisa Kroll told reporters Thursday that many Russians refuse to cooperate with reporters seeking information about their wealth and even complain about being placed on the list.
The Forbes list, which covers a year ending Feb. 11, contains fewer Russian names than that produced by Finans. One of the likely reasons for the discrepancy is that the stock market had declined 3.65 percent by the Forbes deadline since Dec. 31, the reference date used by Finans.
Also, there are “10 various ways” to give valuations to stakes in privately held companies, said Maxim Kashulinsky, editor of Forbes' Russian edition that publishes its own list of 100 wealthiest Russians in May.
“Our valuations are conservative,” he said, referring to both the U.S. and Russian editions.
The total net worth of Russian billionaires by Forbes' calculation is $265 billion, higher than the $336 calculated by Finans.
Finans deputy editor Andrei Shkolin said the magazines were likely using different methods for privately held companies. In addition, he said Finans attributes much smaller assets to certain Forbes billionaires, such as Surgutneftegaz oil producer's chief executive Vladimir Bogdanov. The executive — whose fortune, as measured by Forbes, stands at $2.4 billion — is worth only $120 million, according to Finans.
“Forbes may be of the opinion that Vladimir Bogdanov owns a large stake in Surgutneftegaz,” Shkolin said. “We believe that Bogdanov owns an insignificant interest that doesn't make him a dollar-denominated billionaire.”
Alexander Ignatov, president of one of the companies that has helped Forbes compile the rankings since 2005, Ignatov & Company Group, said the list reflected the liberty of the business climate from country to country, saying the United States and China offered the most opportunities to get fabulously rich.
“In other countries … the close linkage between the government and business doesn't make it possible to leap to a higher level,” he said by phone. “It's no problem to become a dollar-denominated millionaire, but it's close to impossible to jump over to a billionaire.”