Mikhail Fridman, co-owner of Alpha Group. Fridman Mikhail Maratovich - biography, Alfa-bank and business secrets

Mikhail Fridman is the only representative of the "seven bankers" who has managed to maintain his bank since the early 1990s - which has been the largest private bank in Russia for many years. Of all the bankers who helped Boris Yeltsin win the 1996 elections, three more became billionaires: Fridman's partner in Alfa Group, and Bidzina Ivanishvili (No. 365 on the global Forbes list). Potanin and Ivanishvili, unlike Boris Berezovsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky, Alexander Smolensky and Vladimir Vinogradov, managed to keep the business, but not the banks - their Onexim Bank and Russian Credit collapsed during the 1998 crisis.

Fridman was born in Lvov in a family of engineers and studied at the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys (MISiS). After graduating from the institute, he went to work in the city of Elektrostal near Moscow, but very soon received a Moscow residence permit. Together with his institute friends in 1988, he organized the Courier cooperatives, which delivered groceries and washed windows, and Alfa-foto, where as supervisor invited Academician of the Institute of Chemical Physics Mikhail Alfimov. In honor of the academician, the cooperative was named Alpha. In July of the same year, Friedman's personal earnings amounted to 10,000 rubles. A year later, friends founded the Soviet-Swiss joint venture Alfa-Eco, on the basis of which the Alfa Group was created. Initially, the company had six founders: Fridman himself, Oleg Kiselev (at that time a teacher at MISiS), German Khan, Mikhail Bezelyansky, Andrey Shelukhin and Alexei Kuzmichev. Later they were joined by Petr Aven and Andrey Kosogov. Kiselev withdrew from the founders back in 1992, and Shelukhin and Bezelyansky in 2000.

In 1991, Fridman, in parallel with Alfa-Eco, registered Alfa-Bank, which in 1997, together with Access / Renova Leonard Blavatnik (No. ". In 2003, British BP and TNK shareholders merged their Russian assets and created a joint company, TNK-BP. The purchase of other assets of Alfa, in particular VimpelCom, was carried out by the Alfa-Eco group, later renamed A1. Later, a special company, Altimo, was created for the telecommunications assets.

After the sale in 2013 for $14 billion of his stake (25% of shares) in TNK-BP, Fridman and partners created in Luxembourg investment company LetterOne, which invested proceeds from the sale of funds outside of Russia. The main assets of LetterOne are the German oil and gas company DEA, which is soon to be merged with Wintershall from the BASF group, the English chain of health food stores Holland & Barrett, VEON (former Vympelcom, 56.2%) and the Turkish telecommunications company Turkcell (13.22%). In Russia, Alfa Group retains Alfa Bank, Insurance Company AlfaStrakhovanie, X5 Retail Group(47.9%) and "A1".

Friedman has Israeli citizenship. He visits the Promised Land for Jewish holidays, and lives mainly in London, since 2015 he has been a resident of the UK. So far, he lives in a rented apartment: bought in 2016 for 65 million pounds, the mansion Athlone House will have to be restored and rebuilt for a long time.

First business As a student, he sold scarce theater tickets, created the Strawberry Glade club in the MISiS hostel in Belyaevo, arranged meetings, concerts and discos. In 1988, together with friends from MISiS, he organized the Courier cooperative, which was engaged in the delivery of products to the population. He earned his first big money cleaning windows.

Capital The main owner of the LetterOne Holdings group (the German oil and gas company DEA, VEON - 56.2%, Turkcell - 13.22%) and the assets of the Alfa Group consortium (Alfa Bank - 90.1%, "", - 47.9 %).

Number Alfa Group received $14 billion in March 2013 from the sale of its stake in TNK-BP to Rosneft.

Event By mid-2019, the merger of two German companies, DEA and Wintershall, should be completed. As a result, the largest independent oil and gas company in Europe will be created. L1 will receive a 33% stake in Wintershall DEA, BASF (owner of Wintershall) - 67%.

Deals In 2017, LetterOne acquired the British health food chain Holland & Barrett for £1.77 billion, and Pamplona Capital Management (which invests LetterOne's funds) acquired the American healthcare company Parexel for $5 billion.

Venture In February 2016, LetterOne invested $200 million in on-demand service Uber taxi.

Plans L1 plans to fully buy out the second largest in Spain retail network DIA. So far, L1 owns 29% of the retailer's shares.

Brands"Beeline", "Pyaterochka", "Crossroads", "Borjomi".

Charity Alfa Bank finances charitable foundation Life Line, which helps children with serious illnesses. Friedman is a co-founder of the Genesis Philanthropy Group, a charitable foundation that develops and strengthens Jewish identity among Russian-speaking Jews around the world. Genesis sponsored the creation of a new film (trilogy) by Leonid Parfenov "Russian Jews".

Hobby He is fond of cinema, music, chess. Fan of extreme travel on off-road vehicles. In 2015 he traveled to Iran. Most of the billionaire's constant companions, including members of the Forbes list, were afraid to keep him company at that time.

Mikhail Maratovich Fridman is the main owner of Alfa Group, the largest financial and industrial association in Russia, among whose assets are Alfa Bank, X5, AlfaStrakhovanie, A1, as well as the LetterOne Holdings group (VimpelCom, DEA Deutshe Erdoel, Turkcell), a member of the leadership of the Russian Jewish Congress, the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, the private American organization Council on Foreign Relations.

The oligarch, who entered the history of the domestic elite as an honest and respected businessman, was repeatedly named in the media as a prudent and authoritative intellectual with an aggressive form of doing business while ignoring the interests and opinions of other parties, and was also declared a European business leader, the most influential and outstanding entrepreneur of the year .

His fortune in 2015 was estimated by Forbes magazine at $14.6 billion. Thus, he ranked 68th in the world rankings. the richest people and second among Russian businessmen after Roman Abramovich.

Childhood and family of Mikhail Fridman

One of the richest and most powerful people in Russia was born in the Ukrainian city of Lvov on April 21, 1964 in a Jewish family. His relatives worked at a defense enterprise, were members of the CPSU, his father was awarded State Prize in the field of electronics.

Since childhood, Misha has been surrounded by love and care from his mother, grandmother and other relatives. He did not attend kindergarten, he was an excellent student at school. The boy studied music in the piano class and then organized a school vocal and instrumental ensemble, a type of musical creativity that was popular in those years.

Upon graduation in 1981, the young man entered the country's leading university - the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, but he was not accepted. According to one version - he did not pass the competition, according to another - the fateful “fifth column”, that is, nationality, became the reason for the failure. Allegedly because of her, he, being an excellent student, also did not receive a gold medal at school and subsequently failed when entering graduate school.

Mikhail's second attempt to become a student was crowned with success - he entered the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys. Choice educational institution determined, as if, its location in the very center of Moscow, as well as the presence in it good home culture, where pop stars such as Yuri Vizbor and Vladimir Vysotsky performed with concerts.

3 Qualities of Billionaire Mikhail Fridman

Mikhail's student life was eventful. In addition to studying subjects professional orientation, he was engaged in the resale of theater tickets, carpets, imported goods, and also created a youth night club, operating in the institute hostel under the auspices of the Komsomol organization, organized discos, performances by artists. During that period, he met Pyotr Aven, who moved in the same circles, being the head of the Moscow State University music club.

The beginning of the career of Mikhail Fridman

The young engineer began his dizzying ascent to the top of the business Olympus almost immediately after graduating from the university in 1986. By distribution, he ended up in the city of Elektrostal near Moscow, at the metallurgical plant of the same name, where he worked in a design bureau.

At the same time, he organized a cooperative for washing windows, then - for the delivery of products, created, together with his cousin Dmitry, who graduated from the same institute a year earlier, firms that traded in computer equipment.

In 1988, together with German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev and with the assistance of Academician Alfimov, whose name allegedly served as the basis for the formation of the name of the current financial and investment empire, Friedman set about creating it.

The Alfa-Photo cooperative for the sale of copiers and the Soviet-Swiss joint venture Alfa-Eco for the export of petroleum products and metallurgy products were the very first at the birth of Alfa Group.

Among the many areas of activity of the consortium are gas and oil processing, trade in art objects and food products, insurance, telecommunications services, advanced technologies, investments - Alfa-Bank is considered the cornerstone, the first in the country among private banks, which the businessman has headed since its establishment in December 1990. Subsequently, he owned a 37% stake in a financial and credit institution (Khan owned 23%, Kuzmichev - 18%, bank president Petr Aven - 14%).

Mikhail Fridman's advice: How to get a job at Alfa-Bank

In 1995, the oligarch was a member of the ORT collective leadership body, in 2002 he headed the Conference of the Leaders of Jewish Organizations of the Russian Federation, he always supported Jewish initiatives in the country and abroad in every possible way.

In 2005, Alfa Group bought X5 Corporation for a billion dollars. It includes the Perekrestok and Karusel supermarket chains and Pyaterochka discount stores.

In 2008, the tycoon gave his senior position in the bank to his deputy, a ratings manager from Prague, Petr Schmide. In 2009, Mikhail Maratovich headed the oil company TNK-BP.

Personal life of Mikhail Fridman

The oligarch is divorced. With Olga, his ex-wife, they studied on the same course at MISiS. The girl then came from Irkutsk to study. Olga is fond of interior design, in 2000 she graduated from the relevant courses.

Married to her, they had two daughters, Larisa and Ekaterina. They were born and live with their mother in Paris, and in the summer they usually go on vacation to St. Tropez.

Girls attend a school where teaching is English language. They communicate with friends and acquaintances, of course, in French, and with their parents in Russian. That is, the daughters of an oligarch develop mental flexibility from childhood.

Many people talk about Friedman as a hardworking and talented entrepreneur, inclined towards charity, who achieved everything on his own, with his own work, thanks to his mind, and not to theft. He finances the foundation for helping children "Line of Life"

One of the most famous businessmen in the Russian Federation remains a non-public person, lives closed. Today he is an Israeli citizen, lives in London, loves fast driving, movies, music, chess, collects samurai swords. His parents at the beginning of the new century moved from Lviv to Cologne.

In 2001, Mikhail bought a house in the elite suburb of the French capital of Neuilly, previously owned by the ex-wife of Alain Delon, model and artist Mireille Dark. Next to the oligarch's estate are the mansions of the legendary actors Jean-Paul Belmondo and Sophie Marceau.

In order to realize himself as part of the Jewish people, in 2012 Friedman, as part of a group of 12 Russian businessmen, made a three-day pilgrimage through the Israeli Arava desert to the holy city of Jerusalem. They spent the night in tents and covered almost 20 kilometers every day.

Mikhail Fridman today

In 2012, Alfa Group increased its stake in the telecommunications company VimpelCom, which provides services under the Beeline brand, to 48 percent through the sale of MegaFon shares.
In the homeland of the financial tycoon, in Lviv, Alfa-Bank (since 2011) has been organizing the annual jazz festival Alfa Jazz Fest. In 2015, for 5 days in the city, recognized as the cultural capital of Ukraine, more than a hundred performers from ten countries performed, including the legendary American composer and pianist Herbie Hancock, guitarist and vocalist George Benson, and Japanese pianist Hiromi.

As of the end of 2015, Alfa-Bank served 14 million individuals and 194 thousand legal entities. Number of branches and branches financial institution, opened in Russia and abroad, including subsidiaries in the USA, the Netherlands, England, Cyprus, reached 775.

Fridman Mikhail Maratovich was born on April 21, 1964 in Lvov in a family of engineers. Father is a laureate of the USSR State Prize for the development of identification systems for military aviation.

Education

In 1986 he graduated from the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys (MISiS).

Labor activity

In 1986-1988 he worked as a design engineer at the Elektrostal plant (Elektrostal, Moscow Region).

Then he began to practice entrepreneurial activity.

In 1988, he organized the Courier Cooperative, which specialized in window cleaning. In 1989, together with Mikhail Alfimov (from his last name comes the name "Alpha"), German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev, he created and headed the Alfa-Photo company, which was engaged in the sale of photographic materials, computers and copying equipment.

A year later he founded the Soviet-Swiss joint venture Alfa-Eco, which was engaged in the export of oil and metallurgical products, on the basis of which Alfa Group was later created.

In 1991, he became chairman of the board of directors of Alfa-Bank. Part of his capital is invested in Belarusian projects - Alfa-Bank, Life operator, Belmarket and BelEvroset retailers.

Later he was a member of the board of directors of the Public Russian Television (ORT) association, as well as the board of directors of the SIDANCO Oil Company and the Perekrestok trading house.

In January 1996, he became one of the founders of the Russian Jewish Congress, becoming its vice president and head of the RJC culture committee. Member of the Presidium of the Russian Jewish Congress. Provides significant support to Jewish initiatives in Russia and Europe.

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In 1995-1998, he was a member of the board of directors of the television company Public Russian Television (CJSC ORT).

Positions currently held:

Co-owner and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Alfa Group consortium (which includes Alfa Bank, Alfa Capital, Alfa Insurance, Alfa Eco, X5 Retail Group, Rosvodokanal, Altimo, etc.) and LetterOne Holdings. Owns the brands Beeline, Pyaterochka, Perekrestok.

Member of the Supervisory Board of VimpelCom Ltd., member of the Bureau of the Board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, founder and member of the Bureau of the Presidium of the Russian Jewish Congress, member of the Public Chamber of the 2006 convocation, the National Council for corporate governance, International Advisory Council on Foreign Relations (USA).

Awards

Winner of the V National Award "Director of the Year" (2010) in the nomination "Chairman of the Board of Directors: Contribution to the Development of Corporate Governance".

In 2013 and 2017, Forbes magazine awarded him the title of "Businessman of the Year".

One of the richest Russian businessmen, regularly included in the top richest people in Forbes magazine ratings. In Russia, he has repeatedly entered the top 3 richest businessmen in the country, with the exception of 2011 and 2012. During these years, he occupied the seventh and sixth lines of the rating with a mark of 15.1 and 13.4 billion dollars, respectively. From 2013 to 2016, he was in second place (16.5 / 17.6 / 14.6 / 13.3 - a fortune in billion dollars).

In 2018, he took 89th place among the world's billionaires and eighth in Russia. Over the year, he increased his fortune to $15.1 billion, but already in April 2018, due to new US sanctions, he lost $445 million in a day.

On March 12, 2019, Forbes named the co-owner of Alfa Group the richest resident of London (his fortune is estimated at $15 billion). In the next rating of the magazine, he took 7th place among Russian businessmen (he lost $ 100 million in a year).

Interesting Facts

In 2000, his parents moved permanently to Cologne. He himself has Israeli citizenship and lives in London. Speaks Ukrainian.

In 2016, he bought the Victorian-era Athlone House in the UK for $90 million.

Hobbies

The billionaire's favorite hobbies are cinema, music and chess.

Family status

Divorced, ex-wife - Olga, studied with him on the same course.

Mikhail Fridman/Mikhail Fridman

Source of wealth: oil, communications, finance

Place of residence: Moscow

• Early 1990s As a student, he sold scarce theater tickets, created the Strawberry Glade club in the MISiS hostel in Belyaevo, arranged meetings, concerts and discos. In 1988, together with friends from MISiS, he organized the Courier cooperative, which was engaged in the delivery of products to the population. The first big money for those times was earned by washing windows.
• Capital The main owner of the Alfa Group consortium. Largest assets: Alfa-Bank (100%), Vimpelcom (48%), X5 Retail Group (48%).
• Number Alfa Group received $14 billion in March 2013 from the sale of its stake in TNK-BP.
• Deal In March 2013, Rosneft bought out 100% of TNK-BP. Russian shareholders of TNK-BP received $28 billion in cash for a 50% stake in the company.
• Event In 2012, Alfa Group actively bought up Vimpelcom shares, increased its share in the company to almost 48% and overtook the second shareholder of Vimpelcom, its eternal rival Norwegian Telenor (43% of Vimpelcom shares). They financed the purchase at the expense of funds received by Alfa from the sale of a 25% stake in MegaFon to Alisher Usmanov (No. 1). The deal amounted to $5.2 billion.
• Brand Owns the brands Beeline, Pyaterochka, Perekrestok.
• Charity Alfa-Bank finances the Life Line charity foundation, which helps save children with severe cardiac diseases.
• Hobby He is fond of cinema, music, chess.
• Detail IN free time flies by helicopter to his recreation center in the Tver region, where he not only rests, but also negotiates with partners.
• Quote“It’s not the conflict itself that turns me on, I don’t like injustice towards myself. In general, I don’t like her.” Forbes, 2013
  

Right hand:

Ildar Karimov
Member of the Board of Directors of Alfa-Bank

The closest assistant to all partners of Alfa Group, monitors financial flows. He came to Alfa-Bank in 1994, knew Petr Aven from his work in International Institute recursive system analysis(Austria).

Mikhail Fridman is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Directors and founder of the Alfa Group Consortium. Mr. Fridman is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa-Bank and TNK-BP, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of VimpelCom, a member of the Supervisory Board of Directors of X5 Retail Group N.V. Fridman is a member of the Bureau of the Board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (employers), and is also a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. He is also a member of the International Advisory Council on Foreign Relations (USA). Mikhail Fridman is one of the most respected and influential businessmen in Russia.

The Alfa Group consortium is built on private capital, areas of interest include banking, insurance, oil and gas production and processing, retail, telecommunications, new technologies, and investments in commercial and industrial enterprises on a selective basis. Alfa Group is one of the most powerful financial and industrial empires modern Russia. One of the main distinctive features Friedman's group was that she did not seek to establish full control over all its assets, often limited to minority stakes in a number of enterprises - but always large ones.

By the way, it is believed that the future billionaire named his structure, which later developed into Alfa Group, in honor of Academician Mikhail Alfimov. With his support, Friedman in 1988 began to introduce scientific developments in business.

Friedman began his business career while still a student at the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys. He was brought up in a Jewish family with traditional foundations, living in Western Ukraine - far from the Moscow corridors of power. Therefore, the young man had to use all the strength of his intellect and ability to adapt to changing circumstances in order to rise to the top of the Russian business elite.

The oligarch's career began with the sale of theater tickets and carpets.

As a student, he was also involved in window cleaning and computer trading with friends.

Mikhail Fridman escaped the fate of many other Russian oligarchs. He managed to do what others were just talking about - to restructure and rehabilitate his companies, instead of plundering the assets of his holdings and transferring them to offshore companies.

Friedman is married and has two children. Seeks to avoid frequent mention in the press.

Mikhail Fridman - Russian billionaire

Misha Fridman was born on April 21, 1964 in a real devout Jewish family. In Lviv. Misha was a late, and therefore beloved and spoiled child. The parents of the future oligarch lived very friendly. Both worked as engineers in the "defense industry" on the "mailboxes". Both were members of the CPSU, but at the same time maintained ties with the local Jewish community. Misha was forbidden to talk about it at school. Friends were not allowed to enter the house. They were afraid of Jewish pogroms.

On important religious holidays, his father made Misha wear a kippah. They only wore kippahs at home. By the way, Friedman still keeps his baby kippah at home carefully packed in a plastic bag.

Today, Friedman's parents live in Cologne. They left for Germany quite recently, almost the last of the entire local Jewish community.
Misha studied well at school. Always been fat. Mikhail Fridman is still worried about his fullness. At one time I even drank Thai pills. I lost a little weight, but very quickly gained my weight, and even in excess.

He graduated from Fridman school with one B in Russian. I went to Moscow to enter the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Missed one point. In one of the interviews, Mikhail Fridman said that he graduated from school without a medal and did not enter the physics and technical institute in the "fifth column". Entered the Institute of Steel and Alloys (MISiS). In his third year, Friedman tried his hand at producing - he organized an informal youth club "Strawberry Glade" in the MISiS hostel. Conducted discos. He invited famous bards and underground musicians. After the concerts, Fridman personally handed the musicians envelopes with a fee (20-30 rubles each).

At first, Mikhail Fridman's business was built on the “buy-sell” principle, and the Alfa-Eco trading company was the leader in the Alfa Group consortium for a long time. By the way, Alfa-Eco sold carpets self made, sugar, tea and cigarettes. In 1992 she joined federal program export of oil and oil products for state needs. In 1994, Alfa-Eco's export volume for this item alone reached 10 million tons. Mikhail lived in a student dormitory. Parents sent money, but not much. Mikhail fell in love with Moscow immediately. He tried to get married, but was not popular with Muscovites. In dealing with girls, he showed assertiveness. On a bet, he could approach any beauty. Mikhail married a classmate Maria from Voronezh, a neighbor in the hostel. At the wedding, Maria was already deeply pregnant. Friedman's parents did not approve of this marriage. Now his wife and two daughters, Katya and Laura, live in France.

Friedman practically does not maintain contacts with his wife. Maria is a very shy and modest woman, she is not interested in Russian life.

Today, Mikhail Fridman lives very closed, alone, with a security guard. Nobody invites home.

Friedman can rightfully be considered an "iconic figure" Russian business. And after the disappearance of Khodorkovsky (with whom, by the way, Alfa once waged a fierce struggle) and the self-elimination of Abramovich, Fridman became the first patriarch of Russian business and "the last of the oligarchs." As head of Alfa Group, Mikhail Fridman controls assets worth over $3 billion in the banking, oil and retail. Friedman's success is not accidental, it is based on a conservative asset management policy and a strong management team.

Friedman is considered an oligarch close to the Kremlin and has a great influence on the activities of the Russian Jewish Congress.

Mikhail Fridman - Russian entrepreneur, the owner of Alfa Group, the largest financial and industrial association in Russia. To date, the businessman is one of the richest people in the country, consistently ranking in the top ten of the Forbes rating.

Fridman Mikhail Maratovich was born on April 21, 1964 in the Western Ukrainian city of Lvov, in the Jewish family of Marat Shlemovich and Evgenia Bentsionovna. Parents in the position of engineers worked at a Soviet defense enterprise. For the development of navigation devices for military aircraft, Mikhail's father became a laureate of the USSR State Prize. The future billionaire became the second child, the older brother was already growing up in the family. Now Friedman seniors live in Germany, in the city of Cologne.

School years A businessman passed like many Soviet children, but Mikhail among his peers was distinguished by a craving for education, preferring the exact sciences - mathematics, physics and chemistry. This allowed the young man to finish school perfectly, after which Mikhail Maratovich went to conquer Moscow, which was not the first time.

The future oligarch came to the capital with the aim of entering a prestigious Soviet university - the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. But he failed the entrance exams, so he was forced to return home and choose another institute. Friedman chose MISiS, where the next year he was enrolled in the faculty of non-ferrous and rare earth metals.

As a third-year student, Friedman began to engage in entrepreneurial activities - he resold theater tickets and imported goods, and also became a mass entertainer within the walls of the university. Mikhail Maratovich organized a youth nightclub in the institute hostel, on the site of which he arranged discos and performances by pop stars for the appropriate fee.

In 1986, Mikhail Fridman graduated from the university and was sent to work at the Elektrostal metallurgical plant near Moscow, where the graduate was accepted as an engineer in the design bureau. But work in his specialty was not included in the plans of the future billionaire, so Mikhail tried to find a way to open his own business, for which it was necessary to earn initial capital.

Business

Mikhail Fridman earned his first big money cleaning windows: the young man organized a student cleaning company, in which he allowed students to earn an increase in scholarships. Simultaneously with the first company, the businessman opened a company for the delivery of products "Courier" and the company "Alpha-photo" for the sale of photographic materials and office equipment.

From that moment began a significant stage in the biography of Mikhail Fridman. Already in the late 80s, the young man founded the Alfa-Eco enterprise, which exports oil and metal products abroad. This company became the first brick of the future empire of the oligarch called Alfa Group.

Already in the early 90s, the scope of the businessman's activities extended to oil and gas processing, food and art trade, telecommunications services, insurance and investment, advanced technologies and the banking sector.

The largest branches of Alfa Group Fridman became the first private bank in Russia Alfa-Bank, which today serves 14 million individuals and 200 thousand legal entities, the Altimo company, which controls mobile operators Beeline, Kyivstar, Life and the Turkish operator Turkcell. The Fridman group also owns the X5 corporation, which includes the Pyaterochka, Perekrestok, Karusel, Kopeyka supermarket chains and the A5 pharmacy chain.

In 2013, the oligarch founded the international investment group LetterOne, which operates in the energy and technology sectors. In February 2016, L1 made a large investment in the development of the Uber taxi service, which amounted to $200 million. The holding's assets also include the Norwegian branch of the German energy concern E.On.

In addition to business, Mikhail Fridman pays attention to charity. The businessman created and finances the Life Line charitable foundation, which helps seriously ill children overcome fatal heart diseases.

In 2014, Alfa-Bank, with the personal participation of Mikhail Fridman, held Nizhny Novgorod the first international Alfa Future People festival dedicated to contemporary music and advanced technologies. The event quickly attracted many fans, and two years later the open air had already received 50,000 spectators.

Personal life

The personal life of Mikhail Fridman was not as successful as his business career. The businessman, while still a student, married fellow student Olga Aiziman, with whom he had been married for about 20 years. The wife gave birth to two daughters to the billionaire - Larisa (b. 1993) and Ekaterina (b. 1996). But the children did not save the family from destruction, and in the early 2000s the couple divorced.

After parting, Olga and her children went to Paris, where she received a second education - a fashion designer. The billionaire left behind the maintenance of the first family and provides his daughters with a comfortable existence.

The second, this time, the civil wife of the oligarch, was Oksana Ozhelskaya, a former employee of Alfa-Bank. In 2000, the girl gave the entrepreneur a son, in 2006 she gave birth to a daughter, Nika. Friedman's second marriage also broke up.

The businessman settled in London, his lifestyle is called closed and not public. Mikhail Fridman does not use social networks, including Instagram. Photos with the oligarch rarely get into the press. It is known that, in addition to business, Friedman is fond of collecting samurai swords, driving fast SUVs, cinema, chess and music. In 2015, Mikhail Fridman undertook an extreme jeep crossing through Iran.

To become part of the Jewish people, Friedman made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 2012 as part of a group of 12 businessmen. The entrepreneur invests in the development of the cultural identity of his own nation throughout the world. Friedman created the Genesis Philanthropy Group, which helps Russian-speaking Jews adapt to the national culture. One of the projects in this direction was the support for the creation of the film "Russian Jews".

Condition assessment

According to Forbes, in 2016, Mikhail Fridman's fortune was estimated at $13.3 billion, which allowed the entrepreneur to take the permanent second position in the list of the richest businessmen in Russia. In 2017, the position of the businessman in the ranking was shaken: with $14.4 billion, Mikhail Fridman moved to 7th position.

Mikhail Fridman now

In the fall of 2017, the Alfa-Bank branch of Amsterdam Trade Bank, located in the Netherlands, was searched. The Dutch prosecutor's office opened a criminal case on a number of financial crimes management of the bank, which is accused of concealing illegal transactions of clients. As part of the investigation, documents and correspondence from the management of Amsterdam Trade Bank and the Central Bank of the Netherlands were seized from the archive of the organization. As part of this case, Peter Vacca, the Dutch top manager of Mikhail Fridman, was arrested in Spain.