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Mikhail Maratovich Fridman (Russian: Михаи́л Мара́тович Фри́дман; born April 21, 1964) is an international entrepreneur, business executive, and philanthropist. With Russian and Israeli citizenship, in 1988 he co-founded Alfa-Group, a large multi-national conglomerate. In 1990 he co-founded Alfa-Bank, which is now the largest private bank in Russia. After serving as chairman of TNK-BP, the 50/50 TNK-BP joint venture, for nine years, in 2013 he sold his stake in the company and co-founded the international investment company LetterOne (L1), headquartered in Luxembourg. Fridman currently sits as chairman of the supervisory board of Alfa Group Consortium, and he is also on the boards of Alfa-Bank and ABH Holdings, which is the Luxembourg based holding company of Alfa-Banking Group. He is also on the supervisory board of directors for VimpelCom and X5 Retail Group. He is chairman of the L1, and since DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG was bought by L1 Energy in 2015, he has been a member of its supervisory board. Fridman has been a member of numerous public facing bodies, including the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Public Chamber of Russia, and the Council of Foreign Relations in the United States. Also a philanthropist and active supporter of cultural initiatives, he co-founded both the Russian Jewish Congress, the Genesis Prize, and the Genesis Philanthropy Group.

Early life and education

Mikhail Maratovich Fridman (Russian: Михаи́л Мара́тович Фри́дман) was born on April 21, 1964 in Lviv, Ukraine, where he spent his youth. He graduated from high school in Lviv in 1980, where he won school olympiads in physics and mathematics. Initially denied entrance to Moscow’s top physics school because of his Jewish heritage, in 1981 he began attending the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys. He worked various jobs while a student, including founding and co-owning a student dancing club named Strawberry Fields. Fridman led a group of students who would queue for tickets at popular Moscow plays, and then use the tickets as hard currency to barter for rare goods. Having studied metallurgical engineering, Fridman graduated from the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys in 1986 with distinction.

Career

Early years and Alfa-Eco (1980s-1990s)

After graduation Fridman began working as a metallurgical engineer in a state electrical machinery factory. As Russian politician Mikhail Gorbachev began to open the economy in the late 1980s, Fridman in 1988 established Courier, a window washing business and an apartment rental agency for foreigners, with fellow friends from college. The business employed largely other Moscow university students. His grandmother served as a business mentor, his family having owned a kitchenware shop in Lviv, prior to the 1917 revolution. According to Fridman, she warned him to "never have dealings with the Reds."

Along with German Khan, Alexei Kuzmichov and several other partners, circa 1988 Fridman founded Alfa-Eco, a company that sold used computers, and a company that imported cigarettes and perfumes. The investment group was later renamed Alfa Group Consortium which initially focused on computer trading, copy machine maintenance and repairs. The company soon expanded into imports and exports as well, becoming one of the larger conglomerates in Russia with interests in industries such as telecommunications, banking, retail, and oil.

Using $100,000 of his own money to pay the fee, Fridman co-founded Alfa-Bank in December 1990 and was chairman of Alfa Bank. The company grew to become the largest private bank in Russia. Other Alfa Group divisions would later include Alfa Capital Management, Rosvodokanal Group, AlfaStrakhovanie Group and A1 Group. During the 1998 Russian financial crisis, Alfa Bank used its holdings related to TNK to avoid a debt default, and was one of the few Russian banks at the time to continue to allow customer withdrawals.

TNK-BP and assets (2000-2012)

In 1997, Fridman collaborated with Len Blavatnik and Viktor Vekselberg to purchase TNK for US$800 million. TNK, a struggling Siberian oil company, was already bankrupt, with Fridman explaining that at the time, "we thought it was a mistake. We overpaid." However, the company began to turn a profit after a significant debt restructuring. On February 2, 2003, BP agreed to form the TNK-BP joint venture with the AAR consortium, which included Alfa Group, Access Industries, and Renova. After the merger, TNK-BP became the third largest oil producer in Russia.

Fridman co-founded the Perekrestok food retail chains in May 2006, and through the merger of Pyatyorochka founded the X5 Retail Group. It was the country's largest retailer in terms of sales before being overtaken by Magnit in April 2013. A rival grocer, Kopeyka, was acquired by X5 for USD $1.12 billion in 2010. Fridman's net worth was evaluated at $12.7 billion in September 2010, which at the time made him the third-richest man in Russia. After Fridman served as TNK-BP chairman for nine years, in July 2012, Fridman oversaw the sale of TNK-BP to the state-owned Rosneft for USD $56 billion, relinguishing his positions as CEO and chairman. Fridman and his partners sold their stake in TNK-BP to Rosneft, Russia’s state-owned energy group, for $28 billion in 2013.

Founding LetterOne and L1 Energy (2013-2015)

Using USD $14 billion raised from selling their stakes in TNK-BP, Fridman and his partners established LetterOne (L1) in 2013 with Fridman as chairman. Headquartered in Luxembourg, the company was created to invest in international projects in oil and gas, treasury services, private equity, and telecom, technology, healthcare and energy companies. As of December 31, 2013, LetterOne had around $29 billion in assets under management. Forbes assessed Fridman's net worth in 2014 at US$15.6 billion, making him the second richest person in Russia.

On March 2, 2015 Lord Browne was appointed chairman of L1 Energy to build it into a new energy company. L1 Energy officially launched in May 2015 in New York’s Neue Galerie, with a stated ambition to acquire and then develop a portfolio of two or three regionally focused platforms around the world. On May 7, 2015 Lord Davies was appointed deputy non-executive chairman of LetterOne, and a week later, former Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt was appointed as the board's advisor. By the spring of 2015, L1 Energy was growing internationally with assets in countries such as Germany, Norway, Egypt, Denmark, and Algeria. Fridman remained involved with his former companies as well, and Alfa Group's assets equaled around $40 billion by March 2015.

North Sea assets, L1 divisions (2015)

On March 3, 2015, L1 Energy purchased 100% of DEA, an international exploration and production company owned by the German utility RWE, for USD $7 billion (€5.1 billion). Headquartered in Hamburg, Germany with extensive assets in the North Sea and Britain, RWE DEA had total natural gas production output of 2.6bn cubic metres in 2013. The deal was approved by Germany and seven other national and supranational authorities, including the European Union and Ukraine. Despite this, the L1 purchase of RWE DEA was opposed by the UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey, who "raised concerns" that sanctions related to Ukraine might "force L1 Energy to shut down production in the North Sea, imperiling oil supplies" and 5% of Britain's North Sea natural gas output. The opposition from the UK met with a fair degree of press coverage, with the Financial Times writing "the [sanctions] argument has puzzled many who know Mr Fridman. Always careful to steer clear of politics, he has never been seen as a Kremlin crony." Bloomberg opined that "the U.K. government is being patently unfair" to Fridman and L1 Energy, stating "it should leave Fridman alone: He's investing in Western Europe because he sees the same Russian risks that Western nations have seen since last year." On March 4, 2015, Davey gave Fridman a one-week deadline to convince the UK government not to force him to sell the North Sea oil and gas assets. In April 2015, the government gave Fridman up to six months to sell.

In April 2015, LetterOne Technology (L1 Technology) was launched in London. Its fous was buying "struggling telecom or technology companies that require a fresh infusion of capital." Various advisory board members were appointed including Brent Hoberman, Denis O'Brien, and Sir Julian Horn-Smith. The L1 Technology fund began acting as a holding company for the 48 percent stake in VimpelCom owned by Fridman and his partners. The fund also had a 13 percent share in the Turkish telecom company Turkcell. On May 9, 2015, L1 said it was prepared to sell the North Sea gas fields on "commercially acceptable terms." L1 sold its North Sea Oil fields to Ineos, the chemical company owned by Jim Ratcliffe, for an undisclosed sum in October 2015. At the time, the British government assured LetterOne that the forced sale was "not a judgement on the suitability of LetterOne’s owners to control these or any other assets in the UK."

Recent developments (2015-2016)

On October 14, 2015, LetterOne Group announced that it had agreed a deal in Norway to acquire German utility E.ON’s interests in three producing Norwegian fields, all located in the North Sea. Norway’s oil minister said that approval would be handled "in the usual way." Later that month, E.ON solds its Norwegian oil and gas business to L1 for $1.6 billion. LetterOne also revealed plans in October 2015 to contribute funds to Brazilian telecom company OI SA, in an effort to aid consolidation in the mobile phone sector in Latin America. After several parties left the talks, L1 Technology pulled away from the deal in February 2016.

Fridman currently sits as chairman of the supervisory board of Alfa Group Consortium, and he is also on the boards of Alfa-Bank and ABH Holdings, which is the Luxembourgh headquartered holding company of Alfa-Banking Group. He is also on the supervisory board of directors for VimpelCom and X5 Retail Group. He is chairman of LetterOne, and since DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG was bought by L1 Energy in 2015, he has been a member of the supervisory board. On February 12, 2016, it was announced that through the L1 Technology fund, Fridman had made an investment of USD$200 million in Uber. As of March 2016, his net worth was $14.2 billion, which ranked him at No. 63 on Forbes 2016 list of billionaires, and the No. 2 richest man in Russia. In June 2016, LetterOne expanded into healthcare with L1 Health in the United States, with "$2-3 billion of investments in the global healthcare sector" to be doled out over the ensuing three years. Franz Humer was appointed the L1 Health Advisory Board.

Writing and public speaking

In July 2016, Fridman and economist Anatole Kaletsky were interviewed by The Milken Institute in a feature titled "Searching for Growth in an Unstable Global Economy." In the article they talk about topics such as the reasons for current market volatility and a emergece of a new "indigo" economic era, among others. The feature was a followup to an article Fridman had published in the Financial Times the year before, in which he theorized that "the oil price had [previously] remained high because people perceived there was a shortage," and that the global economy was facing a "new phase in which people would not fear the end of oil."

Public career

Fridman is a member of numerous public facing bodies, including the National Council on Corporate Governance in Russia and a boardmember of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. In February 2001, Fridman became a member of the Council for Entrepreneurship at the Government of the Russian Federation. He was elected as a member of the Public Chamber of Russia in November 2005, and also that year he took part in the first convocation of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. Since 2005, Fridman has been a Russian representative on the international advisory board of the Council of Foreign Relations in the United States.

Philanthropy and initiatives

Fridman has been an active supporter of Jewish and Russian cultural initiatives in Europe and the world. In 1996 Fridman was one of the founders of the Russian Jewish Congress, now sitting on the RJC Presidium. He is vice president of the Russian Jewish Congress and head of its cultural committee. Fridman is an active supporter of the national literary award "Big Book," and he is also a member of the board of the "Center Support for Native Literature," which is focused on implementing cultural programs, promoting the ideals of humanism and respect for the values of Russian culture, supporting creative writing and book publishing in Russia. Through Alfa Bank, he has donated funds to Bolshoi Theatre.

He makes large contributions to the work of the European Jewish Fund, a non-profit organization aimed at developing European Jewry and promoting tolerance and reconciliation on the continent. He has also donated to the Nativ program, which "prepares non-Jewish Russian immigrants to Israel for conversion." In the summer of 2007, Fridman along with Stan Polovets and Alexander Knaster, Pyotr Aven, and German Khan founded the Genesis Philanthropy Group, whose purpose is to develop and enhance Jewish identity among Jews worldwide. Every year the Genesis Prize recognises a new person, with character the focus as compared to religion. The New York Times described it as "a $1 million annual award for excellence in virtually any field, to honor those people who attribute their success to Jewish values." The first annual Genesis Prize was awarded in Jerusalem in 2014, with Fridman as a speaker, and Helen Mirren emceeing two years later.

Honors and awards

In May 2003, Fridman was honored with the Golden Plate Award from the International Academy of Achievement in Washington, presented by former US President Bill Clinton. Fridman was given the Darin Award in 2004 for "contribution to the development of domestic business and entrepreneurship." That year he was also included in the Financial Times list of "Leaders of the New Europe 2004," and he was one of the "Europe's Power 25" by Fortune in 2004. Fridman was honored "For Creation of Successful Russian Brand" by World Brand Academy in 2006. The annual GQ Man of the Year National Award, organized by GQ Magazine, named Fridman as "Businessman of the Year" for 2006.

Legal

In 2003, two luxury houses owned by the Russian government were sold below market value to two companies, one of which was owned by Fridman and another by former Russian prime-minister Mikhail Kasyanov. The sales caught the attention of the press in July 2005, with State Duma member and journalist Aleksandr Khinshtein alleging financial connections between Fridman and Kasyanov, which Fridman dismissed. Fridman also stated that the house's asking price was low because the lease had been owned by another entity. In early 2006, the Moscow Court of Arbitration ruled that the two houses should be returned to the state, maintaining Fridman's right to a refund but arguing not all procedures were followed during the privatization. On March 1, 2006, two government officials responsible for the auction were indicted but not arrested for "appropriation of managed property committed by an organized group on a particularly large scale."

Personal life

Based for years out of Moscow and often spending time at corporate headquarters in cities such as Amsterdam and Hamburg, Fridman is unmarried and has four children. Based in Paris, France with his ex-wife as of 2003, in the autumn of 2015 Fridman became primarily based in London, and as of 2016 was in the process of remodeling the Athlone House to be his primary residence. He is a fervent fan of jazz, as well as opera and history. He has stated that in his will, his fortune will be left to charity.

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Mikhail Maratovich Fridman (also transliterated Mikhail Friedman;[4][5][6][7] Russian: Михаи́л Мара́тович Фри́дман; born 21 April 1964) is a Russian business magnate.[8] He also holds Israeli citizenship.[2][3] He co-founded Alfa-Group, a multinational Russian conglomerate. According to Forbes, he was the seventh richest Russian as of 2017.[1][9] In May 2017, he was also ranked as Russia's most important businessman by bne IntelliNews.[10]

In 1991 he co-founded Alfa-Bank, which is one of the largest private banks in Russia.[11] After serving as CEO of TNK-BP, the 50/50 TNK-BP joint venture, for nine years,[12] in 2013 he sold his stake in the company and co-founded the international investment company LetterOne (L1), headquartered in Luxembourg.[1] Fridman currently sits as chairman of the supervisory board of Alfa Group Consortium,[13] and he is also on the boards of Alfa-Bank[14] and ABH Holdings,[14] which is the Luxembourg-based holding company of Alfa Banking Group.[15][16]

He is also on the supervisory board of directors for VEON (formerly Vimpelcom)[17] and X5 Retail Group.[13] He is a member of the supervisory board of DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG, which is owned by LetterOne.[18][19] Fridman has been a member of numerous public facing bodies, including the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs,[20] the Public Chamber of Russia,[14][20] and the Council on Foreign Relations.[21] Also a philanthropist and active supporter of cultural initiatives, he co-founded the Russian Jewish Congress;[22] the Genesis Prize;[23][24] and the Genesis Philanthropy Group, which supports Russian-speaking Jews worldwide.[23][24][25]

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 2.1 Early years and Alfa companies (1980s–1990s) 2.2 Retail holdings and X5 Retail (1995 to present) 2.3 Alfa Telecom and Altimo (2001–2015) 2.4 TNK-BP (2003–2013) 2.5 Founding LetterOne and L1 Energy (2013–2015) 2.6 L1 Energy's North Sea oil assets (2015) 2.7 LetterOne's telecom and other technology assets 2015 to present 2.8 Additional activities 2012 to present 3 Controversy in Spain 4 Current posts 5 Philanthropy and initiatives 6 Honors and awards 7 Legal 8 Personal life 9 See also 10 References 11 External links Early life and education Fridman was born in 1964 in Lviv, Ukraine, USSR, where he spent his youth.[20][26] He graduated from high school in Lviv in 1980.[12] He was denied entrance to Moscow’s top physics college because of his Jewish heritage,[27] and instead attended the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys.[28] He worked various jobs while a college student in Moscow, including washing windows[29][20][30] and founding and co-owning a student discothèque named Strawberry Fields.[31][26][20][29] He also led a group of students who would queue for tickets at popular Moscow plays, and then use the tickets as hard currency to barter for rare goods and favours.[28][20][29] Having studied metallurgical engineering,[32] he graduated with distinction[22] from the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys in 1986.[20]

Career Early years and Alfa companies (1980s–1990s) See also: Alfa Group After graduation Fridman worked as a metallurgical design engineer in Elektrostal Metallurgical Works, a state electrical machinery factory, from 1986 to 1988.[26][33][34][22][35] As Russian politician Mikhail Gorbachev began to open the economy in the late 1980s,[20] in 1988 Fridman established a window-washing business,[28] an apartment rental agency for foreigners,[26] a company that sold used computers,[26] and a company that imported cigarettes and perfumes,[32] with fellow friends from college,[12] employing students from various Moscow universities.[12]

In 1988, along with German Khan and Alexey Kuzmichev, Fridman co-founded Alfa-Photo (also transliterated as Alfa-Foto), which imported photography chemicals.[citation needed][34][36][29][30] In 1989 the three partners founded Alfa-Eco (Alfa-Echo, Alfa-Eko, Alfa-Ekho), a commodities and eventually oil trading firm,[37][10][1][30][38][39] and Alfa Capital (Alfa Kapital), an investment firm.[30][40][41] Alfa-Eco and Alfa Capital developed into Alfa Group Consortium.[42][37][43] The company, which initially focused on computer trading and copy machine maintenance, expanded into imports and exports and commodities trading,[12] eventually becoming one of Russia's largest privately owned financial-industrial conglomerates, with interests in industries such as telecommunications, banking, retail, and oil.[28][12]

Using $100,000 of his profit from his businesses to pay the required fee, in January 1991 Fridman co-founded Alfa-Bank.[32][30][44][20] The company grew to become one of the largest private banks in Russia.[11][20] Alfa Group's later divisions include Rosvodokanal, a private water utility; AlfaStrakhovanie, a diversified insurance company; A1 Group, an investment company; and X5 Retail Group, a large chain of food retailers.[45]

Alfa Group flourished considerably after Fridman recruited Petr Aven, the former Minister of Foreign Economic Relations for the Russian Federation; in 1994 Aven became President and Chairman of Alfa Bank.[46][47] By late 1996, thanks to the success of Alfa Bank and Alfa Group, Boris Berezovsky, in an interview by the Financial Times, named Fridman and Aven as among the seven businessman and bankers who controlled most of the economy and media in Russia,[48][49][46][50][51] and who had helped bankroll Boris Yeltsin’s 1996 re-election campaign.[52][53][50]

Fridman and Aven sold off most of their Russian government securities in early August 1998, prior to the ruble crisis of 17 August 1998, and emerged relatively unhurt from the 1998 Russian financial crisis.[54] During the crisis, Alfa Bank used its holdings related to TNK to avoid a debt default, and was one of the few Russian banks at the time to continue to allow customer withdrawals.[32]

Retail holdings and X5 Retail (1995 to present) Fridman's Alfa Group founded the Perekrestok (also transliterated Perekriostok) chain of supermarkets in Moscow in 1995.[55][56] Through a merger with the Pyatyorochka (also transliterated Pyaterochka) supermarket chain, which had been founded in St. Petersburg in 1999 by Alexander Girda and Andrey Rogachev,[55][56] Alfa Group founded the X5 Retail Group in 2006.[57][55][56] X5 acquired another grocer, Kopeyka, for $1.65 billion in December 2010.[58] X5 is Russia's largest food retailer in terms of sales.[59][60]

Alfa Telecom and Altimo (2001–2015) Alfa Group acquired a 44% stake in Golden Telecom, a large telecommunications and internet company in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, in 2001.[61][62][63] Also in 2001, Alfa purchased a strategic ownership interest in Vimpelcom, a large cellular operator in Russia, and Fridman joined Vimpelcom's board of directors.[64][65]

Alfa Group consolidated its telecom holdings as Alfa Telecom, and by 2005 renamed it Altimo.[61][66] Its holdings and acquisitions included MegaFon, Vimpelcom, Golden Telecom, and Kyivstar.[61] In December 2005 Altimo also acquired a 13.2% interest in Turkcell, the largest telecoms company in Turkey.[61][43]

Fridman's desire to merge Vimpelcom and Kyivstar was thwarted by his Vimpelcom partner, the Norwegian telecoms group Telenor,[67][65] which held stakes in both companies.[43] Fridman resorted to protracted and aggressive efforts to strong-arm Telenor beginning in 2005, and although the merger of Vimpelcom and Kyivstar was achieved in 2010,[68][69] conflicts with Telenor over control of Vimpelcom lasted a total of seven years.[43][70][71][72][31][73]

From 2003 through 2007 Fridman's Altimo was locked in a complex four-year battle, of claims and counter-claims of fraud, with the investment firm IPOC over ownership of a 25.1% stake in MegaFon.[74][75][76][77][43] Altimo's ownership of the stake was finally maintained in 2007.[78][79][80]

In 2012 Fridman sold his entire stake in MegaFon for $5 billion.[81][82][83]

TNK-BP (2003–2013) See also: TNK-BP In 1997, Fridman had collaborated with Len Blavatnik and Viktor Vekselberg to purchase the state-owned TNK (Tyumen Oil Company), an oil company in Siberia, for $800 million.[52][38][26][53] In February 2003, the British multinational oil and gas company BP agreed to form the TNK-BP joint venture with the AAR (Alfa-Access-Renova) consortium, which included Alfa Group, Blavatnik's Access Industries, and Vekselberg's Renova.[84][32][85][86] After the merger, TNK-BP became the third largest oil producer in Russia, and one of the top ten largest private oil companies in the world.[86] Fridman served as TNK-BP chairman for nine years,[12] and CEO for three years.[87]

Prior to the TNK-BP joint venture, in 1999 Fridman had thwarted BP by seizing BP's stake in the Siberian oil company Sidanko, via bankruptcy maneuvers widely regarded as unfair practices.[88][89][52][90][43][91][92][93] And although TNK-BP was highly successful financially,[94] Fridman's relationship with BP during the TNK-BP years was contentious, and included blocking BP's 2011 planned partnership with Rosneft for Arctic oilfield exploration.[52][81][86][31][70]

He resigned as CEO of TNK-BP in May 2012.[85][95] In 2013, TNK-BP was sold to Russia's state-owned energy group Rosneft for $56 billion,[96] with Fridman and his Russian partners receiving $28 billion for their 50% stake, at the height of crude oil prices.[28][94]

Founding LetterOne and L1 Energy (2013–2015) See also: LetterOne

Fridman speaking at the L1 Energy launch on 14 September 2015 in New York. Using the proceeds from the sale of their stakes in TNK-BP, Fridman and his Alfa Group partners Khan and Kuzmichev established the international investment company LetterOne (L1) in 2013,[97][98][99] and Fridman became the company's chairman.[100] LetterOne's additional co-founders were Petr Aven and Andrei Kosogov.[101][102] Headquartered in Luxembourg,[103] the company was created to invest in international projects in energy, telecoms, finance, technology, and other sectors.[104][100] As of 31 December 2013, LetterOne had $29 billion in assets under management.[103] In May 2015 Mervyn Davies (Lord Davies) was appointed deputy chairman of LetterOne,[103] and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt was appointed as the board's advisor.[105]

In 2013 LetterOne also formed L1 Energy, an energy investment vehicle, initially focused particularly on undervalued international oil and gas assets during the slump in oil prices.[106][107] John Browne (Lord Browne) was appointed to its advisory board,[108][106] and in March 2015 became its chairman.[109][107]

L1 Energy's North Sea oil assets (2015)

Fridman (center) with colleagues Petr Aven and Lord Browne (2015) On 3 March 2015, L1 Energy acquired international oil and gas company DEA, from the German utility RWE, for $7 billion (€5.1 billion).[110][109] Headquartered in Hamburg, Germany[111] with extensive assets in the British North Sea,[110] RWE DEA had total natural gas production output of 2.6bn cubic metres in 2013.[112] The purchase was opposed by the UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey, who raised concerns that Fridman might one day face international Ukraine-related sanctions against Russian companies and individuals[113][114][115] which could force L1 Energy to shut down production in the North Sea, thus imperiling oil supplies and 5% of Britain's North Sea natural gas output.[116][114] On 4 March 2015, Davey gave Fridman a one-week deadline to convince the UK government not to force him to sell the North Sea oil and gas assets.[117] In April 2015, the government gave Fridman up to six months to sell.[118][114]

In October 2015 Fridman and the LetterOne Group sold L1 Energy's British North Sea assets to Ineos, a Switzerland-based petrochemical company owned by Jim Ratcliffe, for $750 million.[119][120][121] The British government assured LetterOne that the forced sale was "not a judgement on the suitability of LetterOne’s owners to control these or any other assets in the UK".[122]

In October 2015 LetterOne Group acquired German utility company E.ON’s equity interests in 43 Norwegian oil and gas licences, including interests in three producing Norwegian fields, all located in the North Sea, for $1.6 billion.[123][124]

LetterOne's telecom and other technology assets 2015 to present In April 2015, LetterOne Technology (L1 Technology) was launched in London. Its focus was buying "struggling telecom or technology companies that require a fresh infusion of capital".[125] Various advisory board members were appointed including Brent Hoberman, Denis O'Brien, and Sir Julian Horn-Smith.[126][125]

The L1 Technology fund began acting as a holding company for the 48 percent stake in Vimpelcom owned by Fridman and his partners.[126][26][125] The fund also has a 13.2% share in the Turkish telecom company Turkcell,[126][125] which since 2005 has been hampered by a long-running feud between its three largest shareholders: Cukurova owned by Turkcell founder Mehmet Emin Karamehmet, Fridman's LetterOne via Alfa Telecom/Altimo, and Sweden's Telia Company.[127][128][129][130][131][132]

In February 2016, Vimpelcom agreed to pay $800 million to settle U.S. and Dutch claims that it had bribed officials to win contracts in Uzbekistan between 2006 and 2012.[133][43][134] A year later the company rebranded itself VEON, and changed its focus to mobile internet services such as banking, taxis, and messaging.[135][136]

In February 2016, Fridman's LetterOne fund invested $200 million in Uber.[99][116] In August 2016 LetterOne invested $50 million in telecommunications start-up FreedomPop, to help finance its international expansion.[137][138]

Additional activities 2012 to present In 2012 Fridman partnered with American real-estate developer Jack Rosen in a joint venture to invest $1 billion in distressed real estate properties along the U.S. East Coast.[139][43]

In June 2016, LetterOne prepared to expand into healthcare by launching the $3 billion fund L1 Health in the United States, for investments in the global healthcare industry.[140]

In October 2016, Alfa Group acquired Ukrainian bank Ukrsotsbank, by offering its parent, the Italian financial conglomerate UniCredit Group, a minority stake of 9.9% in ABH Holdings.[141]

In December 2016, LetterOne launched L1 Retail, headquartered in London, to invest $3 billion in "the retail stars of tomorrow" in Europe and the UK.[142]

In 2016 Fridman coined the term "Indigo Era", for his theory of a global shift to an emerging era of economics based on creativity and digital skills rather than on natural resources.[143][144] In 2017 he funded a £100,000 Indigo Prize for new economic-measurement models based on the paradigm.[145][146]

In June 2017 LetterOne's L1 Retail division acquired Holland & Barrett, Europe's largest health-food store chain, for £1.8 billion ($2.3 billion).[147] Also in 2017 Fridman, via LetterOne, invested $3 billion in Pamplona Capital Management,[101][148] a private-equity firm that was founded by Alexander Knaster, the former CEO of Alfa Bank, and which Fridman had invested in previously.[149][150][101]

In January 2018, due to concerns over possible sanctions stemming from the 2017 U.S. Congressional sanctions on Russia, Fridman announced that Alfa Bank was phasing out its holdings in Russia's defense industry.[151][152]

In May 2018 Fridman and Aven spoke to an off-the-record private dinner meeting at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C.[153][154][155][156][157] The invitation and the privacy of the meeting drew criticism of the Atlantic Council from a group of 13 Russian and U.S. experts and activists,[153][154][155][157] who wrote that "In our view ... Aven, Fridman, and other key Alfa Bank oligarchs are ... close cronies and insiders of Putin’s regime, and do not operate independently of Putin’s demands."[158] The Atlantic Council responded that the private meeting was not "a sweetheart platform",[155][159] and the Kremlin responded that the two oligarchs represented the interests of their business, not Putin's interests.[160][161]

Controversy in Spain Spanish media are often critical and distrustful of Fridman’s business practices, indicating that a number of potentially criminal events are associated with his name:

Mikhail Fridman first appeared in the Spanish press in November 2002, when Liberian tanker Prestige sank off the coast of Galicia. It was transferring 77,000 tons of Russian heavy oil; the cargo belonged to Crown Resources, a company owned by Fridman’s Alfa Group. The spill of that heavy oil contaminated the Spanish coast, and caused a major environmental disaster. The total damage was estimated at 1.5 bln euros. After the disaster, the Spanish El Mundo called Friedman ‘Dirty Michael’.[162]

In the summer of 2016, well-known Spanish entrepreneur Javier Perez Dolset, Head of the ZED Corporation (mobile apps developer), addressed the Spanish prosecutor’s office with a complaint about his Russian partners associated with VimpelCom Ltd., a member of the Alfa Group. According to Perez Dolset, they illegally seized the capital of their joint venture, which caused bankruptcy of the parent company. El Confidencial published a series of articles about the story of ZED’s bankruptcy, and accused Mikhail Fridman of illegal take-over by way of removing Javier Perez Dolset from business and ruining him financially.[163][164][165]

In mid-2017, Mikhail Fridman's LetterOne investment company acquired Dia, a Spanish supermarket chain. From 2011 to December 20 2018, Dia was listed in the so-called IBEX 35 as one of 35 largest Spanish companies present in the stock market. Economy expert Sergio Avila comments: “... With the entry of LetterOne, the Luxembourg investment group controlled by Mikhail Fridman, into it (Dia) the sales fell sharply, the profitability of enterprises decreased, which was accompanied by a fall in Dia’s share prices on the Madrid Stock Exchange. Therefore, I assess Dia's prospects as extremely negative, and in no way recommend it to investors.” El Confidencial recalls past episodes associated with Fridman and qualifies his actions as raider attacks on Spanish enterprises.[166]

Current posts Fridman is chairman of the supervisory board of Alfa Group Consortium,[13] and he is also on the boards of directors of Alfa-Bank[14] and of ABH Holdings, which is the Luxembourg-headquartered holding company of Alfa Banking Group.[167] He is on the board of directors of LetterOne.[168] He is also on the supervisory board of directors for VEON (formerly Vimpelcom)[17] and X5 Retail Group.[13] Since DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG was bought by L1 Energy in 2015, he has been a member of its supervisory board.[19][18]

Fridman is a member of numerous public facing bodies, including the National Council on Corporate Governance in Russia[13] and a boardmember of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.[20] In February 2001, he became a member of the Council for Entrepreneurship at the Government of the Russian Federation.[22] He was elected as a member of the Public Chamber of Russia in November 2005.[14][20] Since 2005, he has been a Russian representative on the international advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations.[21]

Philanthropy and initiatives

Fridman (second from right) at the commemoration of the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center at Babi Yar in Ukraine in 2016.[169] In 1996 Fridman was one of the founders of the Russian Jewish Congress,[8] and he has been active in it since then,[170] including having been its vice president and head of its cultural committee.[22] He is a major donor to the European Jewish Fund, which promotes inter-religious dialogue.[8] In 2007,[171] Fridman along with Stan Polovets, Alexander Knaster, Petr Aven, and German Khan founded the Genesis Philanthropy Group, whose purpose is to develop and enhance Jewish identity among Russian-speaking Jews worldwide.[23][171][25] The Genesis Prize, which the group founded in 2012, is a million-dollar annual prize for Jewish contributions to humanity.[23][8] Fridman was also one of the major funders of the Holocaust memorial project at Babi Yar in Kiev, Ukraine, which was launched in 2016.[172][169]

In 2011 he founded the annual Alfa Jazz Fest, which is funded by Alfa Bank, in his hometown of Lviv, Ukraine,[173][174] and in 2014 launched the Alfa Future People Festival, an annual electronic-music festival held on the banks of the Volga River in the Nizhny Novgorod area.[175][176]

Honors and awards In 2003, Fridman was honored with the Golden Plate Award from the Academy of Achievement in Washington, presented by former U.S. President Bill Clinton,[177][22][14] and he was named one of "The Stars of Europe: 25 Leaders at the forefront of change" by BusinessWeek.[178][179] In 2004 he was included in the Financial Times list of 25 business executives named "Leaders of the New Europe".[180] Forbes Russia named Fridman the Russian Businessman of the Year in 2012 and 2017.[181][101]

Legal In 2003, two "elite dachas" owned by the Russian government were sold below market value, one to Fridman and another to former Russian prime-minister Mikhail Kasyanov.[182][183] The sales caught the attention of the press in July 2005, with State Duma member and journalist Aleksandr Khinshtein stating that the sales were done without the mandatory media announcement of auction.[182][183] Khinshtein also alleged a preferential loan from Fridman to Kasyanov, which Fridman denied.[183] Fridman stated that the property's asking price was low because the building was dilapidated and sold without land.[183] Radio Free Europe reported that Khinshtein's investigation appeared to be an attempt to intimidate Kasyanov, who aspired to head anti-Putin forces.[184] In early 2006, the Moscow Court of Arbitration ruled that the two houses should be returned to the state, maintaining Fridman's right to a refund but arguing the proper procedures were not followed during the privatization.[185][186][187] On 1 March 2006, government officials responsible for the sale of the two properties were charged with misappropriation of entrusted property in an especially large amount by an organized group.[188]

In 2005, a United States district court in Washington, D.C. dismissed a 2000 libel suit by Fridman and Petr Aven against the Center for Public Integrity over an online article which included a suggestion that they had been involved in drug-running and organized crime; the federal judge ruled that there was no evidence of actual malice on the part of the publication and that Fridman and Aven were limited public figures regarding the public controversy involving corruption in post-Soviet Russia.[189][190][191][192][46]

In May 2017 Fridman, along with fellow Alfa Bank owners Petr Aven and German Khan, filed a defamation lawsuit against BuzzFeed for publishing the unverified Donald Trump–Russia dossier,[193][194][195] which alleges financial ties and collusion between Putin, Trump, and the three bank owners.[196][197] In October 2017 Fridman, Aven, and Khan also filed a libel suit against the private-investigation firm Fusion GPS and its founder Glenn Simpson, who had commissioned former MI6 agent Christopher Steele to compile the dossier, for circulating the dossier among journalists and allowing it to be published.[189] In April 2018 Fridman, Aven, and Khan filed a libel suit against Steele in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia,[198][199] but the suit was dismissed with prejudice the following August.[200]

Personal life Fridman was based for many years in Moscow, often spending time in European cities such as London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Hamburg.[32][201] In 2015 he moved to London,[170][1][202] and by 2016 had purchased Athlone House to be his primary residence.[203] He is divorced and has four children.[203][204][175][205] In 2016 he announced that in his will, his fortune will be left to charity.[203][204]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Fridman

מיכאיל פרידמן

' (נולד ב-21 באפריל 1964 בלבוב) הוא איש עסקים יהודי רוסי. הונו מוערך (נכון ל 2017 על פי מגזין פורבס) בכ-14.8 מיליארד דולר.

תוכן עניינים 1 קורות חיים 2 עושרו 3 קישורים חיצוניים 4 הערות שוליים

קורות חיים פרידמן נולד בלבוב, כיום באוקראינה, ב-1964, למשפחה יהודית חילונית. הוא מגדיר את עצמו גם כיום כיהודי חילוני - אתאיסט. לפי עדותו, הקשר היחידי שלו לדת היהודית אותה עת היה המצות שסבתו הייתה אופה מידי פסח. אולם החותמת "יהודי" על דרכונו הבדילה בינו לבין הסביבה, ואף שיצרה הגבלות רבות, לרבות התנכלויות אנטישמיות מצד כל מי שידע, היא גם איחדה אותו עם יהודים אחרים וייחדה אותו כמי ששייך לעם היהודי[1].

בשנת 1986 סיים את לימודיו באוניברסיטה במקצוע מהנדס מתכות וב-1996 היה בין מייסדי הקונגרס היהודי הרוסי.

בשנים 2006 ו-2007 היה פרידמן חבר במושב הראשון של הלשכה הציבורית של רוסיה, גוף ממשלתי הממונה על ידי הנשיא, שמטרתו לבחון את החקיקה ודרכי פעולות הממשלה בסובייקטים הפדרליים המרכיבים את הפדרציה הרוסית.

פרידמן גרוש ואב לארבעה ילדים. משפחתו מתגוררת בפריז, בעוד הוא עצמו מתגורר במוסקבה. למרות המרחק הוא שומר על קשר הדוק עם ילדיו וביולי 2012 ביקר עם שלושת ילדיו הגדולים יותר, באושוויץ, כדי להגביר ולשמור על הקשר שלהם ליהדות.

עושרו בתחילת דרכו בעולם העסקים, החזיק פרידמן דיסקוטק וחנות צילום ועסק במסחר ובשירותים פיננסיים. ב-1989 הקים את אלפה גרופ (Alfa Group Consortium), אשר הייתה לאחר התפרקות ברית המועצות למקור עושרו. הוא הרוויח סכומי כסף גדולים והפך לאחד מהאוליגרכים הרוסים.

בשליטת קונסורציום אלפא שלו נמצא כיום Alfa Bank, אחד מגדולי הבנקים ברוסיה, חברת הנפט Tyumen Oil שנקראת כיום TNK-BP, רשת מרכולים וחברה לייצור וודקה, בנוסף לאמצעי תקשורת שונים.

על פי דירוג מגזין פורבס לשנת 2012 מוערך הונו בכ-13.4 מיליארד דולר (השווה להערכה ב-2009 - כ-6.3 מיליארד דולר), והוא מדורג במקום ה-57 ברשימת עשירי העולם של פורבס (לעומת ה-71 ברשימה זו ב-2009) (ב-2008 הוא דורג במקום ה-20 עם הון מוערך של כ-20 מיליארד דולר). בקרב עשירי רוסיה הוא מדורג במקום הששי נכון ל-2012[2].

פרידמן הוא המממן העיקרי של קרן ג'נסיס, התומכת בחיזוק הזהות היהודית בקרב יהודים דוברי רוסית ברחבי העולם. בין השאר, קרן ג'נסיס היא המממנת של פרס בראשית, אותו היא הקימה יחד עם ממשלת ישראל והסוכנות היהודית ביוני 2012, כאשר פרידמן התלווה לפוטין בביקורו בישראל. פרידמן ויהודים רוסים עשירים נוספים, הם שמימנו גם את הקמת האנדרטה לזכר ניצחון הצבא האדום על הנאצים במלחמת העולם השנייה, אנדרטה שפוטין חנך באותו ביקור, בנתניה.

במהלך חודש מאי 2016, פרידמן הודיע כי בכוונתו להעביר את כל עושרו למטרות צדקה לאחר פטירתו, ומבלי להותיר לילדיו חלק מהסכום[3].

פרידמן הוא בעל אזרחות ישראלית.[4]

קישורים חיצוניים ויקישיתוף מדיה וקבצים בנושא מיכאיל פרידמן בוויקישיתוף "The Man Behind The Jewish Nobel Prize" , באתר The Jewish Week על מיכאיל פרידמן באתר קרן ג'נסיס אתר קרן ג'נסיס ynet, המיליארדר היהודי לא מוריש לילדיו: "שירוויחו בעצמם" , באתר ynet, 23 במאי 2016 הערות שוליים

"The Man Behind The Jewish Nobel Prize", יולי 2012 , The Jewish Week

על מיכאיל פרידמן , באתר פורבס

ynet, המיליארדר היהודי לא מוריש לילדיו: "שירוויחו בעצמם" , באתר ynet, 23 במאי 2016

המיליארדר היהודי לא מוריש לילדיו: "שירוויחו בעצמם" , ynet, ‏2016-05-23 (בעברית) https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9B%D7%90%D7%99%D7%9C_...