Alisher Usmanov

Alisher Usmanov

Alisher Burkhanovich Usmanov (born 9 September 1953, Chust, Namangan Province, Uzbek SSR, USSR) is an Uzbek-born Russian business magnate. According to the 2011 edition of Forbes magazine, the oligarch is one of Russia's richest men, with a fortune estimated at US$17.7 billion, and the world's 35th richest person.

He has accrued his wealth from mining, lumber and investment. He is the majority shareholder of Metalloinvest, a Russian industrial conglomerate, which he founded to manage Gazprom's metals interests.

He is also a co-owner of the media holding which comprises 7TV and Muz-TV federal television channels and 33 regional TV broadcasting stations. Besides this, Alisher Usmanov personally owns the Kommersant and Sekret Firmy Publishing Houses, shares in the company SUP, which controls Internet website Livejournal.com and internet newspaper «Gazeta.ru». Mr.Usmanov is a co-owner of Russia's second-largest mobile telephone operator MegaFon and Russian investment fund Digital Sky Technologies (DST), which owns stakes in popular web portals like Mail.ru, Odnoklassniki.ru, Vkontakte.ru, Facebook.com and others.

Usmanov is the president of the FIE, the international governing body of fencing and he has since invested in fencing programs and fencing development around the globe. Usmanov is also a major shareholder in London's Arsenal Football Club, following in the footsteps of fellow Russians Roman Abramovich, owner of rival Chelsea, and Alexandre Gaydamak, former owner of Portsmouth. In February 2008, his Metalloinvest also became sponsor of Dinamo Moscow, the Russian capital's football team once funded by the Soviet secret service. His Metalloinvest group's name replaced the Xerox Corporation's on its players' shirts as part of the $7 million deal. "For me, Dinamo is a first love," said Usmanov, the club's website reported Usmanov as saying. The ballet fan had sidestepped a conflict of interest with Arsenal, London's The Sun reported, 'as Usmanov does not have any shares in the Moscow club. But he is on the board.'

Early life, education, conviction and pardon

Alisher Usmanov was born in 1953 in Chust, Uzbekistan. His father was a state prosecutor in the Soviet republic's capital, Tashkent. He studied International Law at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations MGIMO from 1976.

Usmanov was arrested and imprisoned in 1980. The website centrasia.ru reports that he and a friend - the son of the deputy head of the Uzbek KGB - were convicted in August 1980 by the Military Tribunal of the Turkestan Military District for "complicity in an official's receiving bribes and extortion" but was rehabilitated by Uzbekistan's Supreme Court in July 2000, which ruled that the case had been "fabricated".

Usmanov married Irina Viner, a top rhythmic gymnastics coach, in 1992. In 1997, he attended the Academy of Finance to study banking.

Business interests

Usmanov owns diverse interests including stakes in precious metals, iron ore, steel, natural gas and media companies.

Usmanov is the co-owner of Metalloinvest which he founded along with business partner Vasiliy Anisimov to manage his acquisitions in the metal industry. Metalloinvest owns a wide range of Russia metal and mining businesses including Mikhalovsky GOK, Moldavia Metal, Ural Steel, Ormeto-YUMZ, Olenegorsk iron-ore company, pig-iron company Tulachermet, the Oskol electro-metallurgical plants and the Lebedinski mining-processing combines. His combined holdings make him one of the top 10 steelmakers in Russia.

He is chairman of Gazprominvestholdings, the investment holding subsidiary of Russia's state-owned gas company Gazprom, where his role is to manage what Gazprom calls its "most difficult and sensitive financial transactions."

Usmanov is the sole owner of Cyprus-registered Gallagher Holdings, described as a global conglomerate with main investments in mining and steel industry, technology, oil and gas, media and pharmaceuticals. Since 2006, Usmanov has also acquired stakes in Australia-based mining companies, Medusa, Mt Gibson and Aztec Resources through Gallagher Holdings. He is also the largest shareholder in London-listed Nautilus Minerals, which is prospecting undersea gold and copper deposits off Papua New Guinea.

He has also recently purchased through Gallagher Holdings an interest in Australian Miner - Strike Resources, who are currently working on a world class iron ore deposit in Peru.

Kommersant and media firms

In August 2006, Usmanov began to invest in media. On the encouragement of the Russian government, he bought Kommersant, a newspaper formerly owned by Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky who has fallen into disfavour with the Kremlin and is living in exile. The deal was finalised at US$200 million.

On 12 December 2011, following the 2011 Russian protests regarding vote-rigging in parliamentary elections, Kommersant Vlast magazine ran an unflattering issue on Vladimir Putin titled "Victory of United ballot-stuffers" - a pun on Putin's United Russia party. Usmanov sacked the editor, Maxim Kovalsky, and the head of the publisher's holding company, Andrei Galiyev. Usmanov said there had been an "ethical breach" and that the issue "bordered on petty hooliganism". Later that same day, the boss of the Kommersant publishing house, Demyan Kudryavtsev, resigned. He wrote on his blog that the issue had been released "in violation of internal procedures, professional journalistic standards and the Russian law". Nadezhda Azhgihina, executive secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists, said: "We are shocked. It's a clear example of censorship from the owner". On 14 December 60 journalists from the Kommersant newspaper signed an open letter to Usmanov, saying "We are being compelled to be cowards, which is unworthy and unproductive", and that "We regard his dismissal as an act of intimidation aimed at preventing any critical words about Vladimir Putin [...] We take particular offence at the attempt to present the dismissal of a man for his professional position as a fight for the purity of the Russian language. This is the same kind of fabrication that offended people at the election." Usmanov responded that emotionally, he could "understand the journalists speaking up for sacked top managers" but that "Kommersant Vlast is a respectable, independent, socio-political publication."

The same day, 14 December 2011, Mikhail Prokhorov, an oligarch who had announced his candidacy for the 2012 presidential election, offered to buy Kommersant. Usmanov rejected the offer.

Usmanov made a US$25 million purchase of a 50% stake in Russian sports TV channel 7TV in November 2006 and bought 75% of Russian TV music channel MUZ-TV for US$300 million in June 2007.

Arsenal F.C.

Usmanov moved into the football arena in August 2007 by acquiring a 14.58% stake in the English team Arsenal Football Club. He and his business partner Farhad Moshiri bought the stake in the club owned by former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein for £75 million. David Dein was appointed as head of their investment vehicle Red and White Holdings which became the largest shareholder in the club outside of members of the board of directors.

On 28 September 2007 it was announced that Red & White Holdings had increased its shareholding to 23%, making it the second largest shareholder in the club behind Danny Fiszman on 24%. As of February 15, 2008 he has increased it further to over 24 per cent, giving him a stake just short of Arsenal non-executive director and major shareholder Danny Fiszman's 24.11 per cent. However there was speculation that Usmanov might already be the club's largest shareholder at 24.2% which he later increased to 25% on 16.02.09. On 28 February 2008, Usmanov's investment vehicle, Red and White holdings, confirmed that it was the club's largest shareholder and the company said Red and White has the necessary funding to increase its stake further [but] it has no current intention to make' a full takeover bid for Arsenal 'for six months'. If the stake were to reach 30%, Red and White Holdings would have to launch a formal takeover. Usmanov said he had been an Arsenal fan for seven years and he had a great love for Arsenal.

Usmanov's interest precipitated a 'lock-down' agreement by the Gunners' board, whereby Chairman Peter Hill-Wood announced that club directors could sell their stakes only to 'permitted persons' before April 2009 and had to give fellow board members 'first option' on shares until October 2012. However, there was a termination clause in the agreement in October 2010. "The lockdown...makes us bullet-proof," said the then Arsenal managing director Keith Edelman.

In April 2011 American businessman Stan Kroenke, already a major Arsenal shareholder, increased his stake in the club to just over 62% after buying out Fiszman and Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, making him the majority shareholder. As Kroenke's stake had risen above 30%, he was obliged to make an offer to buy out the remainder of Arsenal shares. Usmanov refused to sell, however, and maintained his stake, claiming a "love" for Arsenal, despite the fact that his bid for outright ownership of the club is seemingly over.

In June 2011, Alisher Usmanov increased his Arsenal FC share beyond 29%. His company, Red and White holding announced on 20 June 2011 that it had more than 29% stake in Arsenal holdings plc.

Other activities

On 17 September 2007, Usmanov paid more than £20 million for an art collection owned by the late Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, days before it was to be auctioned by Sotheby's in London. He gave all the artwork to the Russian state, where it is housed in the Konstantinovsky Palace near St Petersburg. In late September 2007 he purchased the rights to a large collection of Soviet cartoons, which for 15 years had been owned by Russian-born actor Oleg Vidov, who emigrated to the United States in 1985. After the deal, valued at $5–10 million, Usmanov donated the cartoon collection to a newly formed Russian children's television channel.

He is the president of the International Fencing Federation, FIE. He defeated incumbent Rene Roch 66-61.

In May 2009, Digital Sky Technologies, a company he owns a 32% stake in, paid $200m for a 1.96% stake in social networking website Facebook.

Usmanov is a member of the Board of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the chairman of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs committee on regulatory activity improvement and removal of administrative barriers. He is also one of the founders of the Arts and Sports Charity Foundation and a guarantor of the Charity project “One Thousand Russian cities”.

According to presidential decree № 365 of March 17, 2004 Alisher Usmanov was awarded with a Medal of Honor of Russia.

Personal life

He now owns the Sutton Place estate, near Guildford, UK, a Tudor mansion in extensive grounds, once owned by J. Paul Getty.

Usmanov has owned two yachts, both named Dilbar after his mother. The first was 66 metres (217 ft), built by Oceanco in 2005. In July 2008 it was revealed that Osmanov was the owner of Project Opal, a 110 metres (360 ft) yacht being completed by Lurssen in May 2008.