Alfa Group

Aktivs

Alfa Group controls the following assets:

• Alfa-Bank (Russia);
• Alfa-Bank (Ukraine);
• banks in the Netherlands, Belarus and Kazakhstan, as well as branches in Cyprus, the USA and Great Britain.
• Altimo, which owns stakes in VimpelCom Ltd. (provides its services under the trademarks Beeline and Kyivstar) and MegaFon. The Group also invests in Turkcell, a leading GSM operator in Turkey;
• AlfaInsurance;
• Management Company Alpha Capital"";
• UK private equity funds Alfa Capital Partners, an investment company providing advisory services to private equity and real estate investment funds.
• A1 Group, in turn, owns 51% of the shares of the Avianov air retailer;
• Venture Fund "Russian Technologies";
• Rosvodokanal Group is the leading CIS company for water supply and water disposal.

The group also owns shares in the following companies:

• X5 Retail Group (47.8%), which owns the retail chains Intersection"," Five"" and Carousel"";
• oil and gas company TNK-BP (50% with Axess Industries/Renova);
• Avtodilersky holding "Independence" (49.95%) ^[1]
• STS Media, Inc., one of the largest independent commercial television broadcasters in Russia.

Ownership structure

In October 2010, CNews published its version of the distribution of shares among the three founders of Alfa Group in the group's telecommunications and other non-banking assets. According to this version, the main share in Alpha is owned not by Mikhail Fridman, but by Alexey Kuzmichev.

In the summer of 2010, Vimpelcom, created by merging the Russian VimpelCom and the Ukrainian Kyivstar, revealed the details of its joint-stock structure. In particular, the company announced which offshore companies are beneficiaries of a 44.6% stake in Vimpelcom owned by Alpha Group through the telecommunications division of Altimo Holdings & Investments. These are, in particular, Laketown Services from the Isle of Man (42%), Bahamian Cotsmore Holding (18%) and Bardsley Investments from the British Virgin Islands (12%). Vimpelcom does not name the people behind these offshore companies.

Meanwhile, in 2002, the American company Golden Telecom, whose majority shareholder at that time was Alfa Group (in 2008 the company was acquired by VimpelCom), also in its statements announced the three aforementioned offshore companies as beneficiaries of Alpha's share. The shares of offshore companies were not called then, but the company revealed who owns them. Cotsmore is an offshore company, the only shareholder of which is the head of the supervisory board of Alfa Group Mikhail Fridman, Laketown belongs to the current chairman of the advisory committee of the investment company A1 (part of Alpha) Alexei Kuzmichev, and Bardsley belongs to the executive director of the oil company TNK-BP (partially controlled by Alpha) German Khan.

Thus, Kuzmichev owns the largest share in Altimo - 42%. Friedman's share is more than half that - 18%, Khan - 12%. According to the statements of Alfa Group, the group owns 71% of Altimo's shares through a chain from the Liechtenstein offshore Crown Finance and Gibraltar CTF Holdings, and another 1.5% of the shares of the telecommunications holding belong to the owners of Alfa Group directly. CTF Holdings also owns shares in the group and in all other assets except Alfa-Bank. Taking this into account, it turns out that Kuzmichev's share in non-banking assets of Alfa Group is 58%, Fridman - 26%, Khan - 16%.

Alfa Group Telecom Assets Ownership Scheme

Earlier, representatives of Alpha reported that CTF Holdings belongs to the three aforementioned persons, but the distribution of shares between them was still not known. Moreover, the fact that the main share in the group is owned by Mikhail Fridman, who does not represent Alpha at the highest level, and Alexei Kuzmichev, the ex-head of the closed oil trader Crown Resources, came as a surprise to experts. "It is difficult for me to imagine that control over Alpha belongs to someone other than Friedman," says Stanislav Belkovsky, president of the Institute for National Strategy. "Most likely, there are some informal agreements that level out the legal distribution of shares."

"Fridman represents Alpha in public, but it does not follow that he should own the main stake," said Vladislav Kochetkov, president of Finam Investment Company. "In addition, Kuzmichev, like Fridman, is the co-founder of Alpha, so such an alignment is quite possible." However, in Alfa-Bank, according to information previously published by the bank, Friedman is still the main shareholder. Its share is 37%, Kuzmichev - 18%, Khan - 23%.

The remaining 27% of the shares of Alfa Group, according to its documents, belong to 6 individuals. In the reporting of Vimpelcom, in addition to the three aforementioned offshore companies, 6 more offshore companies are indicated - the beneficiaries of Alpha's share. This is, in particular, the Grand Financial Group from the British Virgin Islands, its share in Altimo is 14%. In 2004, VimpelCom disclosed in its statements that Gleb Fetisov, ex-senator and former managing director of Alfa-Eco (the investment division of Alfa Group), was behind this offshore company. As a senator, Fetisov from 2002 to 2005. de facto managed Altimo, and now he is engaged in his own project - "My Bank."

Another 8% of Altimo is owned by Gibraltar's Dendar Invesmetn Fund. Recently, Alfa Bank President Pyotr Aven admitted that this is his stake. Four more offshore companies registered in the British Virgin Islands remain - Altimo beneficiaries: Alja Investments (2%), Fairacre Holdings (2%), Thoro Holding (1.25%) and R&B Investments (0.5%). Judging by the previous statements of sources in Alpha, these offshore companies are the chairman of the Altimo advisory committee Andrei Kosogov, the holding's general director Alexei Reznikovich, the head of the investment company Pamplona Capital Management and the ex-general director of Alfa Bank Alex Knaster and the former adviser to the same bank Alexander Tolchinsky

History

Corporate wars are a native element for Alpha structures, its affairs are an important part of Russia's business history.

2023

Detention of group co-founder Alexei Kuzmichev in France

On October 30, 2023, Alexei Kuzmichev was detained in France. According to the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), the apartment owned by the former co-owner of Alfa Group in Paris and a house located in the Var region on the Cote d'Azur were searched as part of an investigation into illegal financial transactions. According to the newspaper Le Monde, law enforcement agencies found "bundles of money" in the businessman's villa. Read more here.

Inclusion in the sanctions list of co-founders of Alfa-Group

On August 11, 2023, it became known that the US Treasury included Peter Aven, Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, Alexei Kuzmichev and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in the sanctions list.

2022: Transfer of controlling stake in Borjomi producer to Georgian government

On May 19, 2022, IDS Borjomi International announced the transfer to the Georgian government of a controlling stake in the company owned by Alfa Group. We are talking about a free deal. Read more here.

2017

As of April 2017, the parent structure of the consortium was Gibraltar CTF Holdings Ltd., which controlled Alfa Group's assets through an offshore chain. At the same time, more than 40% of CTF Holdings belonged to Mikhail Fridman, and large stakes belonged to German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev.

2021

In December 2021, it became known about the sale of 10% of Mango Insurance to Alfa Group. The latter as a result of the deal became the only owners of a startup engaged in online insurance. Read more here.

2010

By the beginning of 2010, the dispute was settled, but a year later it flared up again when BP decided to exchange shares with Rosneft and jointly develop fields in the Arctic.

2008

In 2008, Altimo and TeliaSonera agreed to join forces in the struggle for control of Turkcell: they demand shares in the company from Turkish tycoon Mehmet Karamehmet. "There was a moment<...> when we conducted more than 100 lawsuits around the world at the same time," Aleksey Reznikovich, chief manager of Altimo, told Vedomosti in December 2010.

In 2008, a consortium of Russian shareholders TNK-BP with the participation of Alpha entered into a fight with; BP the Russians accused the British partner (as before Telenor) of unwillingness to let the joint company abroad.

2005

In 2005, Alfa bought another controversial package - 13.22% of Turkish, Turkcell for which Swedish claimed.the Finnish TeliaSonera

2003

In 2003, Alpha got involved in a dispute for 25.1% of Megafon: Alpha bought them from Leonid Rozhetskin, but the Bermuda IPOC Foundation claimed the rights to them. Alfa defended the shares, only convincing the court that IPOC was an unscrupulous plaintiff: he acted in the interests of Communications Minister Leonid Reiman, who oversaw the communications.

1990

At the end of 1990 Alfa-eco fought in collaboration with the Governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory Alexander Lebed for control over the Achinsk alumina plant - the Krasnoyarsk aluminum plant claimed it.

Notes