Alisher Burkhanovich Usmanov (Uzbek: Alisher Usmonov, Russian: Алишер Бурханович Усманов; born 9 September 1953) is known as an Uzbek–Russian businessman and oligarch. By 2022, Usmanov had an estimated net worth of $19.5 billion and was among the world’s 100 wealthiest people.
Usmanov made his wealth after the collapse of the Soviet Union, through metal and mining operations, and investments. He is a shareholder of 49% of Metalloinvest, a Russian industrial conglomerate, which consolidated in 2006 JSC Metalloinvest’s assets (Mikhailovsky GOK and Ural Steel) with those of Gazmetall JSC (Lebedinsky GOK and the Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant).
He owns the Kommersant publishing house. He is also a co-owner of Russia’s second-largest mobile telephone operator, MegaFon, and co-owner of Udokan copper which develops one of the largest copper deposits in the world. Usmanov eventually teamed up with Yuri Milner and became the largest investor of Digital Sky Technologies (“DST”). On 16 September 2010, Digital Sky Technologies (DST) changed its name to “Mail.ru Group”. He also holds shares of a number of international technology companies. He was the president of the Fédération Internationale d’Escrime, the international governing body of the sport of fencing, from 2008 until 2022.[9][10]
On 28 February 2022, in reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union blacklisted Usmanov, imposing an EU-wide travel ban on him and freezing all his assets. On 3 March, the United States imposed similar sanctions on him, with some exceptions for his companies. Usmanov was named in the Official Journal of the European Union, the publication of record of the EU, as a “pro-Kremlin oligarch with particularly close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin [who is] one of Vladimir Putin’s favorite oligarchs.” However Usmanov refuted these allegations and filed a lawsuit against the Council in the European court in order to prove the invalidity of the accusations of the Council and lift the sanctions. Proceedings in progress.
He spent six years in a Soviet prison in the 1980s on charges of fraud and embezzlement, but his conviction was later overturned. In 2000, he was eventually rehabilitated by the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan, which ruled that the case against him was trumped up and no crime had been committed.
The majority of Usmanov’s fortune is credited as Cash & Other Assets and derived from local media reports and figures provided by his press representatives. Based on Bloomberg calculations, Usmanov netted more than $7 billion from 2012 and 2014 share transactions involving Vladimir Skoch, father of his partner Andrey Skoch, and Farhad Moshiri.
Usmanov owns 49% of Metalloinvest through a holding company, according to previous disclosures on the company’s website. His stake in the holding company isn’t provided on the website as of May 2023 and he’s credited with a 49% interest. Metalloinvest is the largest iron ore producer in Russia, according to its website.
He’s also credited with a 39% stake in Megafon, a mobile phone company. Usmanov holds the shares through his 49% stake in USM, a Russia-based investment company. USM controls all of Megafon directly and through AF Telecom, according to the Megafon website. USM is credited with 80% of Megafon in this analysis because 20% of the company is the subject of a transfer to Usmanov’s partners Ivan Streshinsky and Anton Cherepennikov, according to an Interfax news agency report on April 30, 2020.
USM investments in Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi and Didi Kuaidi taxi booking service, as well as Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart and taxi booking service Ola Cabs, aren’t included in the analysis because information about the stakes is uncertain.
Usmanov was sanctioned by the European Union, the United Kingdom and the US in 2022 over the escalating conflict in Ukraine.
Biography
Education: Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation
Alisher Usmanov was born in 1953 in Chust, Uzbekistan, then a Soviet republic in Central Asia. His father was a prosecutor in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1976 and began working in various agencies of the Uzbek government. He later produced plastic bags at a manufacturing plant outside Moscow and traded wholesale tobacco.
In 1998, after five years at a Moscow investment firm, Usmanov was appointed first deputy CEO, and then CEO, of Gazprom investholding, an asset management unit of Gazprom, the world’s largest gas producer and exporter. When he led the group, Usmanov worked closely with the company’s new management team, which came to power under then-President Vladimir Putin. The team restored Russia’s controlling stake in the company and reclaimed the assets that had been divested by the previous management team.
Usmanov built his metals and mining empire by acquisitions. By 2005, he and his partners controlled Lebedinsky GOK, Russia’s third-largest iron ore producer, and a few smelters. That year, he teamed up with businessman Vasily Anisimov and took control of Mikhailovsky GOK, Russia’s second-largest iron ore producer. The assets were later consolidated into Metalloinvest, which made it the largest iron ore producer in Russia.
Outside of metals, Usmanov began consolidating a stake in MegaFon, the second-biggest mobile phone operator in Russia by subscribers, in 2007. He later raised that stake to 31 percent and, in April 2012, increased his holding to 50 percent plus one share. That allowed him to consolidate ownership and control of the company. In July 2012, he merged his controlling stake in MegaFon with Russian broadband provider Scartel, forming Garsdale. He formed USM Holdings in December 2012, consolidating his assets into a three-way structure that included Ardavan Farhad Moshiri and Andrey Skoch, who controls the shares through his father, Vladimir. He sold 12 percent of USM back to the company in August 2014.
Usmanov was also an investor in the DST group of funds. DST had a 5.5 percent stake in Facebook, as of February 2012, as well as parts of Airbnb, Spotify and Alibaba.
Milestones
- 1953 Alisher Burkhanovich Usmanov is born in Chust, Uzbekistan.
- 1976 Graduates from Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
- 1998 Takes role as first deputy CEO of Gazprom investholding.
- 2007 Invests in MegaFon; eventually raises stake to 31 percent.
- 2008 Becomes majority shareholder in Digital Sky Technologies Fund.
- 2012 After delays, MegaFon completes its IPO in London.
- 2012 Establishes USM Holdings with billionaires Moshiri and Skoch.
- 2014 Sells 12 percent of USM Holdings back to the company for about $2 billion.
- 2018 Sells 30 percent stake in Arsenal soccer club.
