My profile:
bloomberg
Deripaska
In the rich list, published Friday, the number of Russian billionaires shot up to 110, from 87 since Forbes' U.S. edition published its global rich list a month ago.
Surging commodity and property prices helped push the combined fortunes of the top 100 up 54 percent to $522 billion, or more than one-third of the country's economy, from $338 billion in March 2007, Forbes said.
And unlike in the days when Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other oil barons dominated, now those who made their fortunes from metals and mining make up one-fifth of the top 100.
Topping the Russia list this year is aluminum king Oleg Deripaska, the majority owner of United Company RusAl, whose fortune -- including infrastructure, energy and financial assets -- is estimated at $28.6 billion, $11.8 billion more than a year ago.
Longtime leader Roman Abramovich, with $24.3 billion, was pushed into third place by owner Alexei Mordashov, whose fortune rose to $24.5 billion on the back of rising steel prices.
Another metals magnate, Novolipetsk Steel owner Vladimir Lisin, is fourth with $23.9 billion, while co-owners Mikhail Prokhorov and Vladimir Potanin hold fifth and sixth positions, respectively. More leading positions went to metals and mining tycoons: owner Suleiman Kerimov was eighth, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works chairman Viktor Rashnikov came in 11th and Igor Zyuzin, whose has benefited from record coal prices was 12th.
 AP Abramovich |  |
| |
"For the global report, we used conservative estimates for many companies because we did not know their financial reports for 2007," Kashulinsky said. "For the [Russia] list, we relied on companies' declared financial performances and they were bigger than we anticipated."
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Last year, when the U.S. dollar was worth more, there were just 60 Russian billionaires, and a fortune of $660 million was enough to make the top 100.
Finans magazine, a Russian rival to Forbes, in February listed 101 billionaires on its rich list. Finans put Deripaska's fortune at $40 billion.
"All those figures were seriously exaggerated. They were simply blown out of proportion," said a spokesman for Deripaska, who requested anonymity.
Despite the ascendancy of the metal barons, however, oil men still held places in the top 10, with chief Vagit Alekperov in ninth place, while TNK-BP shareholders Mikhail Fridman and German Khan are seventh and 10th respectively.
Real estate tycoons, meanwhile, reaped the rewards of lucrative initial public offerings. Yury Zhukov and Kirill Pisarev, co-owners of developer , saw their fortunes rise from $830 million to $6.1 billion, while Andrei Molchanov, of LSR Group, saw his fortune rise to $4.8 billion.
Yulia Sokolova, a spokeswoman for LSR, said Forbes' figure was even a little on the low side.
"New company capitalization figures released Thursday indicate that Molchanov is now worth $5.1 billion," Sokolova said.
Amid the global credit crunch, some bankers fared less well on the list.
The list's biggest drop, from 19th place to 36th, was attributed to Russky Standart bank owner Rustam Tariko, who saw his fortune shrink by $2 billion to $3.5 billion.
But a source close to the bank dismissed the ranking as guesswork.
"Forbes is way off the mark," the source said. "If you look at the recent sale of Absolut Bank and Expobank, both relatively minor players, their sale prices were four or five times greater than their book value. By the same evaluation, [Russky Standart] would be worth $5 billion to $6 billion."
The poorest billionaire on the list is Viktor Kharitonin, who made $1.1 billion running , the country's biggest drug maker.
