Russia's richest man is worth £10 billion – and he's single

Published on Monday 16 February 2009 20:51

RUSSIA'S most eligible bachelor, the outspoken and controversial billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, is now the country's richest man with a £10 billion fortune.

While many of his peers seek state bail-outs and risk losing their businesses entirely, the 43-year-old former banker and mining executive, tops a rich list published by business magazine Finans .

Mr Prokhorov, a former chief executive of Norilsk Nickel, attracted international media attention two years ago when he was briefly detained in a prostitution investigation in a French skiing resort. He was released without charge.

Priding himself in predicting the crisis was coming, he can view the latest rich-list as further proof his strategy was correct. The rating itself is unlikely to impress him, though.

"I never think about this bullshit," he said in November when asked about rich lists. "When I'm in a restaurant, I don't want everybody to stop eating and look. I'm not George Michael."

Mr Prokhorov, who enjoys biathlons, kickboxing and extreme sports, earned billions of pounds by offloading his real estate and banking assets as well as a one-quarter stake in Norilsk Nickel, the Arctic miner that supplies 20 per cent of the world's nickel, to United Company Rusal in 2008.

He now owns a minority stake in Rusal, whose majority owner, Oleg Deripaska – last year's leader on both Finans' and US magazine Forbes' rich list – now faces major challenges as he struggles to refinance debts.

Mr Deripaska saw his fortune plummet nearly tenfold to 3.5 billion from 28 billion last year, according to Finans, which now rates him the eighth-richest Russian.

Deripaska, who in recent months has lost assets in Canada and Germany put up as collateral on bank debts, has long argued calculations of his fortune were inaccurate as they did not count his debts, which are estimated – though not confirmed by Deripaska – at over 14 billion.

Second to Mr Prokhorov on the list came the owner of Chelsea FC, Roman Abramovich, although his fortune shrank to 9.7 billion from 16 billion.