Michelson Leonid Viktorovich

Aktivs

2021: Sale of a 6.25% stake in Sibur to Sogazu

Leonid Mikhelson, the main shareholder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sibur, sold a 6.25% stake in Sogazu (she bought 100% of Trust 3 LLC from Mikhelson). As a result, the share of effective ownership of shares of the largest petrochemical company in Eastern Europe in the billionaire decreased from 48.48% to 42.23%. Mikhelson's share in the authorized capital of Sibur also decreased to 27.83% from 34.08%. Read more here.

2022: Principal Assets

As of April 2022, Leonid Mikhelson is a major shareholder of the Russian gas PJSC "" Novatek(24.6%) and the leading Russian oilchemical holding (SIBUR Holding 30.6%) of the 20^[1]

Biography

Born August 11, 1955 in Kaspiysk.

Education

In 1977, Leonid Mikhelson graduated from the Kuibyshev Civil Engineering Institute with a degree in civil engineering.

Young Leonid Mikhelson did not adhere to the prescribed rules, moreover, he was not afraid to demonstrate it, even at the entrance exams to the institute^[2] a^[2]

In the introductory work, the applicant writes:

The rapid movement of time poses new problems for the development of such a large and important topic of Soviet literature as the topic of labor. Our time requires deep psychologism from literature. Studies of the complex processes of development and formation of the human person, its spiritual world. The book about labor should be not only an image of human relationships... The man of labor is the protagonist of the literature of socialist realism, many outstanding works are associated with his image, which we are legally proud of... "I'm going to a thunderstorm" by D. Granin... "Three minutes of silence "G. Vladimov.

Seventeen-year-old Leonid attributed G. Vladimov's "Three Minutes of Silence" to "the best works of Soviet literature." It was not just a bold, but a bold step for the applicant in 1972. A real challenge to the system of power. Back in May 1967, Vladimov appealed to the IV Congress of the Union of Writers of the USSR with a demand for an open discussion of Solzhenitsyn's letter to the congress:... "are we a nation of scum, whisperers and snitches? Or are we a great people who gave the world an incomparable galaxy of geniuses?.. "

Published in 1969 in the Novy Mir magazine, then led by Alexander Tvardovsky, the novel Three Minutes of Silence (written in the genre of confessional prose, since the author himself worked as a deck sailor on a ship in the process of preparing the book) caused a flurry of communist criticism directed both against Vladimov himself and against the editor who published his work.

For one mention of Vladimov, Mikhelson's written work could be assessed as unsatisfactory, but we must pay tribute to the university teacher Klimanova, who gave him a good assessment solely on the grammatical and semantic component.

The Kuibyshev Civil Engineering Institute, which was then headed by Vladimir Koryakin, was generally known as a kind of island of freethinking. Figures sciences in the field of construction never adhered to official dogmas, so the rector of KuISI, for example, did not consider it reprehensible for himself to play in a student theater.

Work as a foreman on the construction of the first line of the Urengoy-Chelyabinsk gas pipeline

After graduation, he worked in the foreman of the construction and installation department in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug of the Tyumen Region in the area of ​ ​ Surgut, on the construction of the first line of the Urengoy-Chelyabinsk gas pipeline.

1983: Head of the line for the construction of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline

In 1983-1985 - Head of the line for the construction of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline, which was run by the Kuibyshevtruboprovodstroy trust.

1985: Chief Engineer of the Ryazantruboprovodstroy Trust

In 1985-1987 was the chief engineer of the trust Ryazantruboprovodstroy"."

1987: Director of Kuibyshevtruboprovodstroy Trust

After the death of his father in 1987, he headed the Kuibyshevtruboprovodstroy trust, which in 1991 was the first in the region to undergo the corporatization process and became a private construction enterprise of Samara People's Enterprise Nova JSC. Until 1994, Leonid Mikhelson was its manager.

1994: General Director of Financial and Investment Company Novafininvest

In 1994, JSC Samara People's Enterprise Nova was reformatted into OJSC Financial and Investment Company Novafininvest and Leonid Mikhelson became its general director, and in 2000 he became Chairman of the Management Board of the company. The company by that time received the rights to produce natural gas at several large fields of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

2000: Member of the Board of Directors and co-owner of Nova Bank

In 2000-2006 - Member of the Board of Directors and co-owner of Nova Bank. In 2006, the credit institution was transformed into the "First United Bank" (Pervobank). Leonid Mikhelson remained his co-owner (50.15% of the shares) until the merger of Pervobank with Promsvyazbank in 2016^[3] Viktorovich].

2003: Member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of Novatek's Management Board

In March 2003, Novafininvest was renamed OJSC Novatek"" (hereinafter PJSC). Michelson became Chairman of the Management Board and a member of the company's Board of Directors.

2004

In 2004, a partnership was formed with the French company Total.

The international consortium for the development of Yamal LNG consisting of Novatek (50.1%), Total (20%), Chinese CNPC (20%) and Chinese Silk Road Fund (9.9%) was exempted from all tax payments: mineral extraction tax, export export duty on gas, import duty on equipment, and so on.

Total is believed to have later become Michelson's guarantor, Novatek and Sibur for sanctions protection. It was said that one of the conditions of the American side was the proposal to change its partner from China to Japan and Mikhelson's entry into Japanese projects.

2006: Net worth - $2.5 billion

In 2006, Leonid Mikhelson first entered the list of billionaires according to the American Forbes magazine with a fortune of 2.5 billion. dollars

2008

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Stroytransgaz

From March 2008 to December 2010 he was a member of the Board of Directors, Chairman of the Board of Directors of one of the largest construction and engineering companies in the Russian Federation - OJSC Stroytransgaz.

Member of the Board of Directors of Art Finance

From 2008 to 2011, member of the Board of Directors of Art Finance LLC.

2009: Chairman of the Board of Directors of Yamal LNG

In 2009-2010 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Yamal LNG OJSC.

2011

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sibur Holding

Since April 2011 - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the petrochemical company SIBUR Holding.

Member of the Supervisory Board of the All-Russian Regional Development Bank

From June 2011 to 2013 - Member of the Supervisory Board of JSC All-Russian Regional Development Bank.

Fortune - $9.1 billion (15th place in the ranking of the Russian-language version of Forbes)

In the ranking of the Russian-language version of Forbes "The Richest Businessmen of Russia - 2011"^[4] Leonid Mikhelson took 15th place. Leonid Mikhelson's fortune is estimated at $9.1 billion.

2012

In 2012, Novatek destroyed Gazprom's export monopoly by signing a contract with the German company EnBW for the supply of 2 billion cubic meters of gas.

2015: Sale of 10% stake in Sibur to Chinese state-owned company Sinopec

In December 2015, the Chinese state-owned company Sinopec bought 10% of Sibur for $1.339 billion, after which Mikhelson's share in the company decreased to 43.2%^[5] became^[5].

2016: Sale of a 10% stake in Sibur to the Silk Road Fund

In December 2016, another 10% of Sibur was sold to the Chinese Silk Road Fund, and the billionaire's stake in the company dropped to 34%.

2017

Acquisition of 17% of Sibur shares

In 2017, Mikhelson's structure acquired a 17% stake in Sibur from the then member of the Board of Directors of Kirill Shamalov^[6].

Owner 78.29% Leviticus

As of February 2017, Leonid Mikhelson (78.29%) and Leonid Simanovsky (21.71%) were the owners of Levit LLC^[7].

2019

Partnerships and disagreements

At the beginning of 2019, it was reported that Mikhelson is in a strategic alliance with the owner of Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, Viktor Rashnikov.

At the same time, Leonid Mikhelson is in a state of conflict with Igor Sechin over the question of who will build tankers for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG). At the beginning of 2019, South Korea (86% of tankers) fulfills the main orders for the construction of Arctic vessels.

For the LNG project, it was planned to create the first superverf in Russia, which will fully cover all orders for ships of the Northern Sea Route. Earlier, Igor Sechin announced in the Big Stone (Primorye) the construction of such a shipyard. Igor Sechin voted in the March 2018 presidential election in the city of Bolshoi Kamen to emphasize the importance of super Verfi.

Rosneft and Gazprombank entered the consortium, the amount for the project is 150 billion rubles. President Vladimir Putin twice came to the facility in Vladivostok.

The owner of Novatek, Leonid Mikhelson, did not want to depend on the "obligation" to build his vessels on Zvezda and become dependent on Rosneft, the Nezygar telegram channel reported. But this could not be avoided. For his part, Mikhelson is trying, in opposition to Sechin, to lobby the Kirienkov-Kovalchuk Atomflot, which want to build LNG tankers in Vyborg, and not on the Zvezda in Primorye.

Owner of 100% of Nova

As of September 2019, Mikhelson officially became the owner of Nova LLC^[8] (Nova LLC specializes in the construction of trunk pipelines and facilities for the development of oil and gas fields). Since September 14, Mr. Michelson has owned 100% of the company's authorized capital.

Initially, Leonid Mikhelson owned Nova LLC personally, then formally its owners were Novafininvest LLC and several offshore companies (Kanval trading limited and Kerden Trading Limited, Swgi Russian growth fund limited). Then 100% of Nova was under the control of Levit LLC (Mikhelson and Leonid Simanovsky holding), which listed its main assets. Then the shares went to the general director Sergei Romantsev (51%), as well as Viktor Fomin and Andrei Kosharsky. The transition of Nova to the ownership of top managers was associated with the desire of Mr. Mikhelson to focus on Novatek projects^[9]August 1, 2018, instead of top managers, Victoria Mikhelson, the entrepreneur's daughter, became the owner of Nova.

Fortune - $24 billion (1st place in the ranking of the richest Russians)

In the Forbes ranking "200 richest businessmen in Russia - 2019" took first place, his fortune was estimated at the largest amount - $24 billion ^[10].

2020: Fortune - $17.1 billion (3rd place in the ranking of the richest Russians)

In the list of "200 richest businessmen Russia - 2020" became the third among Russians (48th place in the world) with 17.1 billion dollars^[11]

2021: Fortune - $24.9 billion (5th place in the ranking of the richest Russians)

On April 6, 2021, Forbes magazine published an annual ranking of the richest people on the planet. Leonid Mikhelson's fortune was estimated at $24.9 billion, he entered the top five leaders in the rating of the richest businessmen in Russia. Read more here.

2022

Being sanctioned by Canada and the UK

On April 6, 2022, Canada expanded the sanctions list against Russia. Nine people got into it, including Russian billionaires Vladimir Potanin, Viktor Vekselberg, Leonid Mikhelson, Dmitry Pumpyansky and Vadim Moshkovich^[12].

On April 6, 2022, Great Britain included the head and co-owner of Novatek PJSC Leonid Mikhelson, Alrosa president Sergei Ivanov and Kamaz head Sergei Kogogin in the sanctions ^[13]. Sanctions involve freezing assets, a ban on entry into the country. In addition, transport sanctions have also been imposed on him, that is, a ban on the entry and maintenance of any ships and aircraft owned or controlled by him, in case of violation, these vehicles can be arrested.

Fortune - $14 billion (4th place in the ranking of the richest Russians)

On April 21, 2022, Forbes magazine published a rating of the richest Russians. Leonid Mikhelson took fourth place in it with a fortune of $14 billion^[1].

2023: Net worth - $27.5 billion

According to the results of 2023, Leonid Mikhelson's fortune amounted to $27.5 billion, which is $2.38 billion more than a year earlier.

2024: Net worth - $27.4 billion

Leonid Mikhelson's fortune as of March 2024 amounted to $27.4 billion.

Social activities

Participates in the Board of Trustees of the Moscow School of Management "Skolkovo," is a founding partner and member of the Board of Directors.

Michelson is one of the main sponsors of FEOR (Beard). For more details see Judaism in Russia

Since 2009, the founder of the V-A-C (Victoria - the Art of Being Contemporary) charitable foundation, named after daughter Victoria. The Foundation is engaged in the promotion of Russian contemporary art in the West, allocates grants to artists and exhibition organizers. Implements a project to create a cultural space on the former GES-2 on Bolotnaya embankment in Moscow.

Since April 2019 - Head of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Football Union.

Awards

He was awarded the Soviet Order of the Badge of Honor, the medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (2014). Honorary Citizen of Novokuybyshevsk, Samara Region (2009). Honorary Worker of the Gas Industry.

Family

• Wife - Lyudmila Mikhelson;
• Daughter - Victoria Michelson, born 1992 studied art history at New York University;
• Daughter - Erica, born in 2002

Father - Viktor Zelmanovich Mikhelson (1916-1987), supervised the construction of oil pipelines, in 1979-1987. He was the director of the Kuibyshevtruboprovodstroy trust, was also a deputy of the Novokuybyshevsky City Council of People's Deputies, a member of the Novokuybyshevsky city committee of the CPSU^[3].

Notes