Mikhail Fridman

Mikhail Fridman: Trivia

• Fridman was denied entrance to Moscow's top physics college due to being Jewish.
• He co-owned a student discothèque named Strawberry Fields while a college student.
• Fridman led a group of students who would queue for tickets at popular Moscow plays and barter the tickets for rare goods and favors.
• He graduated with distinction from the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys in 1986 with a degree in metallurgical engineering.
• Fridman worked various jobs while a college student, including washing windows and co-owning a student discothèque named Strawberry Fields.
• He co-founded Alfa-Photo (Alfa-Foto) in 1988, which imported photography chemicals.
• Fridman co-founded Alfa-Eco (Alfa-Echo, Alfa-Eko, Alfa-Ekho), a commodities and eventually oil trading firm, and Alfa Capital (Alfa Kapital), an investment firm, in 1989.
• Alfa-Eco and Alfa Capital developed into Alfa Group Consortium.
• Fridman co-founded Alfa-Bank in January 1991, which grew to become one of the largest private banks in Russia.
• Alfa Group's later divisions include Rosvodokanal (private water utility), AlfaStrakhovanie (diversified insurance company), A1 Group (investment company), and X5 Retail Group (large chain of food retailers).
• Fridman founded X5 Retail Group in 2006 through a merger with the Pyatyorochka (Pyaterochka) supermarket chain.
• X5 acquired Kopeyka for $1.65 billion in December 2010.
• X5 is Russia's largest food retailer in terms of sales.
• 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.
• Purchased a strategic ownership interest in Vimpelcom, a large cellular operator in Russia, in 2001.
• Consolidated telecom holdings as Alfa Telecom, renamed it Altimo in 2005.
• Holdings and acquisitions included MegaFon, Vimpelcom, Golden Telecom, and Kyivstar.
• Acquired a 13.2% interest in Turkcell, the largest telecoms company in Turkey, in December 2005.
• Faced conflicts with Vimpelcom partner Telenor over control of Vimpelcom and Kyivstar, which lasted seven years.
• Engaged in a four-year battle of claims and counter-claims with Bermuda-based investment firm IPOC International Growth Fund over ownership of a 25.1% stake in MegaFon.
• Sold entire stake in MegaFon for $5 billion in 2012.
• Collaborated with Len Blavatnik and Viktor Vekselberg to purchase the state-owned TNK (Tyumen Oil Company) in 1997.
• Formed the TNK-BP joint venture with the AAR (Alfa-Access-Renova) consortium in February 2003.
• Served as TNK-BP chairman for nine years and CEO for three years.
• Had a contentious relationship with BP during the TNK-BP years, including blocking BP's planned partnership with Rosneft for Arctic oilfield exploration.
• Resigned as CEO of TNK-BP in May 2012.
• TNK-BP was sold to Rosneft for $56 billion in 2013, with Fridman and his partners receiving $28 billion for their 50% stake.
• Established the international investment company LetterOne (L1) in 2013 with Alfa Group partners Khan and Kuzmichev.
• Additional co-founders included Petr Aven and Andrei Kosogov.
• Headquartered in Luxembourg, LetterOne focused on international projects in energy, telecoms, finance, technology, and other sectors.
• Formed L1 Energy, an energy investment vehicle, in 2013.
• John Browne (Lord Browne) was appointed to L1 Energy's advisory board and became its chairman in March 2015.
• Acquired DEA from RWE for $7 billion in March 2015.
• Faced opposition from UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey due to potential Ukraine-related sanctions.
• Given a one-week deadline to convince the UK government not to force the sale of North Sea oil and gas assets.
• Sold L1 Energy's British North Sea assets to Ineos for $750 million in October 2015.
• LetterOne Group acquired E.ON's equity interests in 43 Norwegian oil and gas licenses for $1.6 billion in October 2015.
• Launched LetterOne Technology (L1 Technology) in London in April 2015.
• Focused on buying struggling telecom or technology companies.
• L1 Technology fund acted as a holding company for the 48 percent stake in Vimpelcom owned by Fridman and his partners.
• Vimpelcom agreed to pay $800 million to settle U.S. and Dutch claims of bribing officials in Uzbekistan in February 2016.
• Rebranded as VEON in 2017, shifted focus to mobile internet services.
• LetterOne fund invested $200 million in Uber in February 2016.
• Invested $50 million in telecommunications start-up FreedomPop in August 2016.
• Partnered with Jack Rosen in a joint venture to invest $1 billion in distressed real estate properties along the U.S. East Coast in 2012.
• Prepared to expand into healthcare by launching the $3 billion fund L1 Health in the United States in June 2016.
• Alfa Group acquired Ukrainian bank Ukrsotsbank in October 2016.
• Launched L1 Retail, headquartered in London, to invest $3 billion in "the retail stars of tomorrow" in Europe and the UK in December 2016.
• Coined the term "Indigo Era" for his theory of a global shift to an emerging era of economics based on creativity and digital skills in 2016.
• Funded a £100,000 Indigo Prize for new economic-measurement models based on the paradigm in 2017.
• Acquired Holland & Barrett, Europe's largest health-food store chain, for £1.8 billion ($2.3 billion) in June 2017.
• Invested $3 billion in Pamplona Capital Management, a private-equity firm, in 2017.
• Announced that Alfa-Bank was phasing out its holdings in Russia's defense industry due to concerns over possible sanctions in January 2018.
• Blacklisted by the European Union and had all his assets frozen in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 28, 2022.
• Sanctioned by the United Kingdom on March 15, 2022.
• Offered to transfer $1 billion of his personal wealth into the Ukrainian Sense Bank that he co-founded in October 2022.
• Sense Bank transferred millions of its own budget to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and territorial defense units.
• Involved in the Prestige oil spill off the coast of Galicia in November 2002.
• Accused of staging an illegal takeover of Spanish company Zed Worldwide in 2016.
• Attended court proceedings in Madrid in October 2019 as a person under investigation in the Zed case.
• Spanish National Court dismissed the case against Fridman in December 2020, citing a lack of reasonable grounds for accusation.
• Acquired Dia, a Spanish supermarket chain, through LetterOne investment company in mid-2017.
• Dia's decline in value was attributed to mismanagement and lack of investments in marketing, not Fridman's actions, according to a Spanish National Court ruling in January 2021.
• On the board of directors of ABH Holdings, the Luxembourg-headquartered holding company of Alfa Banking Group.
• Member of the supervisory board of DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG since 2015.
• Member of numerous public-facing bodies, including the National Council on Corporate Governance in Russia and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
• Elected as a member of the Public Chamber of Russia in November 2005.
• Russian representative on the international advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations since 2005.
• Co-founder of the Russian Jewish Congress, active member and former vice president.
• Major donor to the European Jewish Fund and founder of the Genesis Philanthropy Group.
• Genesis Prize, a million-dollar annual prize for Jewish contributions to humanity, was founded by the Genesis Philanthropy Group in 2012.
• One of the major funders of the Holocaust memorial project at Babi Yar in Kyiv, Ukraine.
• Founded the annual Alfa Jazz Fest in Lviv, Ukraine, in 2011.
• Launched the Alfa Future People Festival, an annual electronic music festival, in 2014.
• Sold two "elite dachas" owned by the Russian government below market value in 2003, leading to investigations and court rulings.
• Dismissed a 2000 libel suit against the Center for Public Integrity in the US over an online article suggesting involvement in drug-running and organized crime.
• Filed defamation lawsuits against BuzzFeed, Fusion GPS, and Christopher Steele over the publication of the unverified Steele dossier alleging financial ties and collusion with Putin and Trump.
• Steele's private intelligence firm Orbis Business Intelligence ordered to pay damages for false claims in the Steele dossier.
• An unnamed 58-year-old man arrested in London in December 2022, alleged to be Fridman, but Alfa-Bank denied it.
• The Russian Embassy stated Fridman had not asked for consular assistance.
• The National Crime Agency closed the investigation in September 2023, taking no further action against Fridman.
• Based in Moscow for many years, often spending time in European cities.
• Moved to London in 2015 and purchased Athlone House for £65 million as his primary residence.
• Divorced with four children.
• Announced that his entire fortune will be left to charity through his will.