Yitzchak Mirilashvili

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Yitzchak Mirilashvili
יצחק מירילשוילי
Portrait of Yitzchak Mirilashvili
Yitzchak Mirilashvili
Born1984 (age 39–40)
Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
NationalityIsraeli
Other namesSlava Mirilashvili
Alma materTufts University
OccupationBusinessman
Known forBusiness and philanthropy
Notable workCo-founder of VK

Yitzchak Mirilashvili (born Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Mirilashvili; Hebrew: יצחק מירילשוילי; born 1984) is an Israeli investor, entrepreneur and philanthropist.[1] He is a co-founder of VK (Vkontakte.ru), Russia's largest social network. Mirilashvili lives in Israel, where he oversees his businesses as well as various charitable foundations and causes.[2] Mirilashvili is the controlling shareholder of Israel's Channel 14.[3]

Early life[edit]

Mirilashvili was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1984. His father, Michael Mirilashvili, is Georgian Jewish and a Russian-Georgian-Israeli businessman and philanthropist.[4][5] He moved to Israel as a child and attended high school there. Mirilashvili attended Tufts University in the United States, graduating with a degree in economics in 2006.[6]

Career[edit]

VK[edit]

Mirilashvili co-founded VK in 2006 with friends Lev Leviev and Pavel Durov,[7][8] where he served as chairman and majority shareholder. VK became Russia's largest social network.[9] with over 500 million active users.[9] Mirilashvili, Leviev and Durov raised capital from Digital Sky Technologies, headed by Yuri Milner. In 2013,[10] at the age of 29, Mirilashvili sold his remaining shares in VKontakte for a valuation in excess of $1 billion,[11][12] making him one of Israel's wealthiest citizens.[13]

Plarium[edit]

Mirilashvili was a 35% shareholder in Plarium,[14] an F2P mobile and online gaming company founded in 2009. Mirilashvili held a material stake in Plarium, which in 2017 was sold to Aristocrat, a publicly held Australian company, for an estimated $500 million.[15]

The Kuf Dalet Group[edit]

Mirilashvili is the sole shareholder and chairman of The Kuf Dalet Group, a holding company that manages his group's investment portfolio and is headquartered in Herziliya.[16] Kuf Dalet invests in real estate and infrastructure primarily within the United States, Israel, Russia and Europe.

Kuf Dalet is the controlling shareholder in Rothstein Real Estate Co, Ltd., an Israeli residential real-estate development company traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange[17] and a member of the TA Real-Estate Index.[18]

The group's holdings in Israel include commercial and retail portfolios of properties in Tel Aviv, Herzliya and adjacent suburbs. In the United States, Mirilashvili's real estate portfolio is concentrated in New York City as well in the Midwest and Southeast regions, with commercial and retail assets.

Yesodot Private Equity was launched by the group in 2014, creating a fund for investing in energy storage, development and infrastructure projects in Israel and abroad.[19] Yesodot acquired an 18% stake in Israel's IPM Be’er Tuvia power plant development project in 2018,[20] which is meant to produce 451 MW[21] and supply 3.5% of Israel's electricity needs.[20] Prior to this transaction, Yesodot completed a private equity investment in an existing solar panel business owned by the publicly- listed Israeli conglomerate Shikun & Binui, which produces 24 MW.[22]

SPAR[edit]

Mirilashvili acquired a 19.9% stake in the Israeli franchise of SPAR in 2023, replacing Shufersal. Mirilashvili reached an agreement with majority shareholder Amit Zeev before Shufersal's announcement.[23]

Other projects[edit]

In addition, Mirilashvili is the controlling shareholder in Israel's Channel 20, a broadcast news channel which began as a Jewish heritage programming outlet that targets the conservative-leaning political spectrum.[24]

In 2019, Mirilashvili was included in TheMarker's list of top 100 influential people in Israel in the field of business.[25]

Philanthropy[edit]

Yitzhak and his wife Vika donate millions of dollars each year, through their charitable foundation, to hundreds of educational and welfare institutions in Israel and around the world.[16][26]

Yaffa and Aryeh Deri-related donations[edit]

Mirilashvili has made donations to organizations run by Yaffa Deri, wife of Aryeh Deri. In 2017, Israeli authorities investigated the Deris; Mirilashvili and his father were among 16 prominent Israelis questioned as part of this investigation.[11] In 2018, the police recommended the prosecution of Aryeh Deri; Mirilashvili was found to have done nothing wrong.[27][28]

Chabad and Channel 14[edit]

Yitzchak Mirilashvili and his father have donated approximately NIS 150 million per year to bodies associated with Chabad Hassidism and religious Zionism.[29] Yitzhak Mirilashvili, who is a member of the Chabad community, is the owner of Channel 20, a TV channel considered to be close to his own worldview and increasingly that of the American Fox News channel.[29]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Vyacheslav Mirilashvili and Lev Leviev Have Invested in the Russian Travel Company Ostrovok.RU". Jewish Business News. 2014-06-18. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  2. ^ "Philanthropist to Keynote Banquet". COLlive - Community News Service. 2018-10-15. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  3. ^ "Billionaire unjustly jailed in Putin's Russia to represent Jewish ex-Soviet communities". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 2017-07-26.
  4. ^ Kononov, Nickolay (2014-03-10). "Opinion | The Kremlin's Social Media Takeover". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  5. ^ "Mikhael Mirilashvili: Making an impact from Georgia to Israel".
  6. ^ "Viatcheslav Yitzhak Mirilashvili, D Rotshtein CTR & Assets LTD: Profile and Biography". bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  7. ^ "Lev Leviev sells Russian social network stake". Globes (in Hebrew). 2013-04-18. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  8. ^ Kennedy, Daniel Alan (2013-06-13). "Russia's New Exiles". HuffPost. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  9. ^ a b Fanteev, Frank (July 17, 2019). "300+ Million Users: Understanding Russia's VK Social Network". Digital Marking Magazine.
  10. ^ "Мирилашвили Вячеслав Михайлович". Forbes.ru. 2012-04-19. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  11. ^ a b Senyor, Eli (July 17, 2019). "Among those investigated in the Deri affair: billionaire Mikhael Mirilashvili and his son". Ynetnews.
  12. ^ Avriel, Eytan (2013-06-05). "The Richest Israelis Got NIS 10 Billion Richer in 2013". Haaretz. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  13. ^ "Mirilashvili completes Rothstein acquisition". Globes (in Hebrew). 2014-05-28. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  14. ^ ציפורי, טלי; לוי-וינריב, אלה (2017-08-10). "אקזיט ישראלי בתחום הגיימינג: פלאריום נרכשת ב-500 מיליון ד'". Globes (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  15. ^ "Aristocrat Buys Israeli Plarium For $500M | Technology News". NoCamels - Israeli Innovation News. 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  16. ^ a b "Mikhail Mirilashvili". eajc.org (in Russian). 24 July 2017. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  17. ^ "Mirilashvili completes Rothstein acquisition". Globes (in Hebrew). 2014-05-28. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  18. ^ "דף הבית - הבורסה לניירות ערך בתל אביב | אתר הבורסה". www.tase.co.il. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
  19. ^ פרוינד, אורן (2014-12-09). "המוסדיים יעמידו הלוואה של 80 מיליון שקל למירילשוילי". כלכליסט - www.calcalist.co.il. Retrieved 2019-09-03.
  20. ^ a b "Be'er Tuvia power plant finally underway". Globes (in Hebrew). 2018-01-30. Retrieved 2019-09-03.
  21. ^ "Infrastructure for Growth" (PDF). Government of Israel. September 3, 2019.
  22. ^ כהן, הדי (2014-11-09). "קרן יסודות רוכשת מתקנים סולאריים ב-400 מ' ש' משיכון ובינוי". Globes (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2019-09-03.
  23. ^ Sapir, Shira (29 September 2023). "Yitzchak Mirilashvili takes minority stakes in SPAR Israel". Globes.
  24. ^ "Billionaire unjustly jailed in Putin's Russia to represent Jewish ex-Soviet communities". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 2017-07-26. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  25. ^ "100 המשפיעים של מגזין TheMarker". TheMarker (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  26. ^ "Philanthropist to Keynote Banquet". COLlive - Community News Service. 2018-10-15. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  27. ^ "Minister Deri and wife questioned again". Channel 13 (in Hebrew). 5 June 2017. Most of the donors to the organization, including the Georgian-Israeli billionaire Mikhail Mirilashvili and his son Yitzchak, did not know of the uses of their donations and were not involved in any fraudulent actions.
  28. ^ "מאות אלפי שקלים מאנשי עסקים: המלצה להעמיד לדין את השר דרעי" [Hundreds of thousands of shekels from businessmen: recommendation to prosecute Minister Deri]. Walla! News (in Hebrew). 2018-11-20. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  29. ^ a b "אב ובנו, מיליארדרים, במסע רכישות בישראל: האוליגרכים שלא רוצים שתשמעו עליהם" [A father and son, billionaires, on an acquisition spree in Israel: the oligarchs who don't want you to hear about them]. TheMarker (in Hebrew). 2017-06-16. Retrieved 2023-04-27.
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