An Oligarch’s game
Prokhorov, 48, a part-owner of the Brooklyn Nets basketball franchise, is Russia’s 10th richest person, and has a personal fortune of about $13 billion, most of which he made in mining, metals, and energy, and later switched over to technology pre-crisis. He sold about 40 percent of his stake in Polyus Gold International to partners of Kerimov for a reported $3.62 billion, Bloomberg reports.
Mikhail Prokhorov’s company Onexim owns 17 percent of Rusal, the world’s largest aluminum producer, and is “closely monitoring” the opportunity to buy more debt or selling out shares.
In April 2013, Prokhorov’s company bought out the Russian division of Renaissance Capital, making it the sole owner of Moscow-based Renaissance Credit and Renaissance Capital banks.
He challenged Vladimir Putin in the 2012 Presidential election and won 8 percent of the vote.
Suleiman Kerimov, formerly the majority shareholder in Uralkali, nearly halved his holdings in Uralkali in the last year, selling off before the stock plummeted when Uralkali unilaterally decided to exit the cartel on July 30.
In August 2012, Kerimov held a 55.3 percent stake in the potash giant, but his stake was estimated at just 17.16 percent when Uralkali quit Belaruskali.
Kerimov didn’t buy into Uralkali until 2010, when he picked up fellow billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev's controlling stake.
Since Uralkali’s split, Kermimov’s financial woes have deepened, and in August drastically cut expenses for his Russian football team, dropping key star players.
Before the 2008 crisis hit, Kerimov’s fortune was estimated by Forbes at $17.5 billion, and by 2009 it had nearly vanished to $3.1 billion. The financial crisis nudged Kerimov to sell assets in Gazprom, Sberbank, and a real-estate project in Moscow, and to buy stakes in Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, and other western investments.
In 2006, the Dagestan native was seriously injured in a car accident on the French Riviera. He spent time in a coma and has permanent scarring from burns.
According to Forbes, Kerimov is the 19th richest person in Russia.
rt.com/business/uralkali-belaruskali-kerimov-prokhorov-888/