Oleg Deripaska

Oleg Deripaska
File:Deripaska.gif
Born	(1968-01-02) January 2, 1968 Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia
Alma mater	Moscow State University, Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics
Occupation	Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Basic Element Company
Spouse	Polina
Website	Basic Element

Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska (Russian: Олег Владимирович Дерипаска) (born January 2 1968 in Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast) is a Russian billionaire and a member of the Board of Directors of UC Rusal, a Russian aluminium industry company .

Business introduction

Deripaska is the sole owner and a Chairman of the Supervisory board of Basic Element, a diversified investment company established in 1997 with assets in Russia and abroad. Basic Element's main assets are concentrated in six sectors - Energy, Resources, Manufacturing, Financial Services, Construction and Aviation. The major assets include UC Rusal, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, , GAZ Group automotive company, Soyuz Bank, Ingosstrakh insurance company, Aviacor aircraft manufacturer, SMR mining company, Continental Management Timber Industrial Company, Glavstroy and Transstroy] construction companies, stakes in Strabag (25%) and Switzerland based Fahrni (100%). In 2007, Basic Element's consolidated revenues exceeded USD26 billion. The market value of the Company's assets is estimated at USD45 billion . Basic Element employs 300,000 people and owns companies in Russia, the CIS countries, Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Deripaska is one of 16 global business leaders who drafted CEO Climate Policy Recommendations to G8 Leaders, a document outlining international business community's proposals to effectively tackle global warming. The proposals were signed by more than 100 of the world's leading corporations and handed to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on June 20, 2008. G8 leaders discussed the recommendations during the summit in Japan on July 7-9, 2008. The process was coordinated by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

In 2004, Deripaska was appointed by the President of Russia to represent the country in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council (ABAC). He has held the position of Chairman of ABAC Russia since 2007.

Deripaska is Vice President of the [Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Russian National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce] and a member of the Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship Council, an agency of the Russian Government].

He sits on the Boards of Trustees of the Bolshoi Theatre, the School of Business Administration, the School of Public Administration, and the School of Economics at Moscow State University and the School of Business Administration at St. Petersburg State University. Deripaska is a co-founder of the National Science Support Foundation and the National Medicine Fund.

In 1999, Deripaska was awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples by President Boris Yeltsin.

Biography

Education and early career

Deripaska was born in Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, but he grew up in Krasnodar krai. He graduated with honors in physics from the Moscow State University in 1993, and in 1996, he earned an economics degree from the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics. He was general manager of Sayanogorsk Smelter (1994-1997) and held the post of president of Sibirsky Aluminium Investment Industrial Group (1997-2001), which later became a core of Basic Element Investment Company.

The Guardian mentions:

(…) as a student at Moscow State University, he was skint. The Soviet Union had just collapsed, the country was in turmoil and "decay"; Deripaska worked on building sites across Russia to prevent himself from starving.

"We had no money. It was a very practical question every day. How do I get money to buy food and keep studying?" he recalls. There was little future in his university subject, theoretical physics. He abandoned his studies and started business as a small-time metals trader.

Between 1993 and 1994 he accumulated a 20% stake in the Siberian aluminium factory - to the annoyance of the plant's communist-era bosses. "I was expecting they would treat me as a shareholder. But they said, 'No, you have the shares, but we run our business. And it's separate.'"

Deripaska persuaded the workforce not to go on strike, boosted production, and - it's not entirely clear how - crushed the local mafia.

Later career

In 2005, he was included in the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated wealth of £4,375m, but was not listed in 2006; however, according to an August 2006 article in the New York Times, the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti has estimated Deripaska's total wealth at $14 billion, which, if true, would either make him Russia's richest man or possibly tied for the spot with fellow multibillionaire oligarch Roman Abramovich.

He is said to the richest person in Russia according to an April 18, 2008 Forbes magazine report, with "a fortune of $28.6 billion -- $11.8 billion more than he was worth last year." However, he has consistently said that the estimate of his wealth was exaggerated and he should have been ranked far below the top ten on the list of Russian billionaires.

Deripaska has a London home in Belgrave Square, which was originally the town residence of the Dukes of Bedford. In September 2006, Deripaska was rumored to be interested in buying Arsenal F.C. for £350m; however, Arsenal subsequently denied these claims. Deripaska also denied these rumors. .

In 2006, Group, which combines automotive assets of Basic Element's Russian Machines Corporation, purchased 100% shares of LDV Holdings (producer of light commercial vehicles, the city of Birmingham, Great Britain) from the American Fund Sun Capital. The main product of LDV is the light commercial vehicle Maxus. In less than a year after the Group had gained control of LDV the factory returned to profitability.

In April 2007, Deripaska acquired 25 percent (€1.05 billion) of the Austrian construction company STRABAG SE, which is owned by Hans-Peter Haselsteiner. STRABAG SE is the 6th largest construction business in Europe.

In May 2007, Magna International chairman Frank Stronach announced that Deripaska was becoming a strategic partner in Magna.

On 25 July, 2008 GAZ Group launched the serial production of sedan, which is based on a platform acquired from the American corporation Chrysler and was designed by British studio UltraMotive. Engineers and specialists from Magna International played an active role in the installation and fine tuning of the cars assembly line, as well as in the training of the Group's employees. GAZ Group plans to add other models to the production at the assembly line.

On October 3, 2008 Magna International announced that Russian Machines terminated its participation as a shareholder of the Canadian auto parts maker. However the companies said that development of autocomponents business in Russia, as well as other joint projects, would continue.

It was reported in May 2008 that Deripaska had shown an interest in purchasing an English Premier League Football Club, and was strongly linked to purchasing West Bromwich Albion. In June 2008, Albion announced that they are looking for serious investors and/or buyer and The Daily Mirror stated that the move of Oleg Deripaska taking over is a possibility. However, Deripaska has made no indication that he is interested in buying West Brom. Earlier he had even denied having any commercial interest in English football industry in an interview with The Guardian newspaper .

Lawsuits

A law suit against Deripaska was brought in the Commercial Court of the High Court in London on November 24, 2006 by Michael Cherney. Cherney sought a declaration that he was the beneficial owner of 20 percent of Rusal's stock which, he claimed, Deripaska held in trust for him; this claim was denied. On May 3, 2007, Mr Justice Langley decided that Mr Deripaska had not been properly served and that the Court had no jurisdiction to try the claim under European law, because Mr Deripaska was not domiciled in England & Wales. He also refused to dispense with service of the claim form.

On July 3, 2008, in the English High Court, Mr Justice Christopher Clarke held in a lengthy opinion that Cherney had the right to seek in the English courts declarations against Deripaska to give effect to Cherney's trust claims, an order that Deripaska sell or procure the sale of 20% of Rusal and 13.2% of UCR and account to him for the proceeds, and damages (a total claim value of about $4.35 billion).He rejected an argument that the English courts was not a proper venue for these claims, holding that in the Russian courts (where Deripaska said any such claims should be heard) "it appears to be common ground between the experts that, in certain cases, the arbitrazh courts cannot necessarily be expected to perform their task fairly and impartially. [Deripaska's expert witness] characterizes that as only applicable in a case whose outcome will affect the direct and material strategic interest of the Russian state..." (paragraph 239) and that "Mr Deripaska has held himself out as having a link with the Russian State that borders on the umbilical" in reaching a decision that there was a "significant risk of improper government interference if Mr Cherney were to bring the present claims in Russia, where they would be very high profile proceedings indeed, such that substantial justice may not be done to him if he is required to proceed there" (paragraph 248). Accordingly, he held, the English court was not forum non conveniens. The court's decision was published by BAILII.

A spokesman for Deripaska stressed that the ruling was "not on the substance of the case...[R]ather, it is a procedural judgment about where that case should be heard" adding "We disagree with the pejorative claims made about Russian courts in the judgment". "On the substance of the case, we vehemently reject the vexatious claims made by Mr Cherney, and look forward to setting out our case on these claims", he said in the statement

On July 22, 2008, the court granted leave to appeal to Deripaska.