Biography:
Born November 22, 1966 in Perm. He graduated from the Perm Medical Institute in 1990. He began his career in 1990 as a doctor-intern in the 2nd City Hospital (Perm), as well as director of a small business "Magnetics". In 1992 he organized the investment and brokerage company “Inkombrok", as well as the voucher investment fund "Stone Belt". At the same time he became president of the investment company "Financial House".
In 1994 he was Acting Chairman of the Board of Bank “Credit FD”, and later was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Also in 1994 he joined the board of directors of Russia's largest potash producer Uralkali. In 1996 Rybolovlev became Chairman of the board of directors of the company.
In 2000, Uralkali signed an export contract with Canpotex and the Swiss intermediary firm Bermont Trading SA, but later abandoned the firm’s services and started exporting supplies by their own.
In 2005, Uralkali entered into an agreement with the Government of Belarus on the joint venture’s participation together with RUE Belaruskaly in OAO "Belarusian Potash Company” (BPC). The company bought 50% stake in BPC, and Rybolovlev was appointed Chairman of the Supervisory Board of BPC. In 2007, IPO of Uralkali was conducted: then they sold 12.75% of shares and Rybolovlev earned 1.07 billion dollars.
Rybolovlev is Member of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
According to magazine Forbes, his fortune was 3.1 billion dollars in 2009, the 196th place in the rating of the world millionaires. According to the magazine "Finance" - at the beginning of 2009 his fortune was estimated at 4.60 billion dollars, and the 9th place in the rating of Russian billionaires.
Marital status: Married, has two daughters, his family lives in Switzerland.
Source: viperson.ru, "Finance"
Dossier:
Rybolovlev earned his first capital by money of the rich authorities; they said he took money from criminals, and did not pay back by deceiving them. They also wrote that back in the 90’s Rybolovlev received funds for the registry of Uralkali, and then they bought shares from employees, sold the package on the market at a higher price, then again bought the shares from the workers with the earned money and so on. Rybolovlev bought apartments for those heads of departments who helped him buying up the shares in the shops.
Source: Russian Forbes, May 2008
In 1994 Rybolovlev managed to convince 17 Permian companies to create the bank “Credit FD” and to transfer all their cash flow to it. Rybolovlev became Chairman of the board of directors of the bank and used its resources to purchase securities. In fact, he bought plants at the expense of their own funds. In 1993-1995 Rybolovlev had got in his portfolio securities of the following companies: "UralKali", "Silvinit", Solikamsk PPM, Gubakhin’s "Metafrax", and Permian "Neftechimik."
Source: Ogonyok from 20.07.2009
In 1995 Rybolovlev gathered enough of interest in Uralkali and headed the board of directors. He wanted to become independent of the International Potash Company (IPC), which had been created as a single export channel for the potash industry enterprises. In May 1996, shareholders of Uralkali voted to dispense with the services of the IPC, and the next day after the vote Rybolovlev was arrested for the murder of General Director of JSC "Neftechimik" Evgeny Panteleymonov. Rybolovlev owned 40% stake in Neftechimik, he was chairman of the board of directors of the company. The problem of "Neftechimik" was that its cash flows were controlled by criminal structures - authoritative people had been appointed to several positions in the company. Panteleymonov tried to convince Rybolovlev to stop cooperating with commercial structures controlled by criminals. In September 1995, Panteleymonov was shot, and six months later the murder organizer Oleg Lomakin (Prokop) was arrested. In exchange for the promise of investigators to classify the charge to a lighter article, he said that Rybolovlev "ordered" Panteleymonov. There was no other evidence linking Rybolovlev with the murder apart from the testimony by Prokop. After a year of arrest, Rybolovlev was released on bail; later the court acquitted him.
Source: Russian Forbes, May 2008
In 1999, only AO Uralkali was left "under control" of Dmitry Rybolovlev. He began to strengthen his position in a not entirely honest way: first, he did not pay dividends to shareholders, and then at the extraordinary shareholders' meeting the decision was made to increase the number of authorized shares. The issue was made to dilute minority shareholders and to weaken their positions, as well as to strengthen the position of Dmitry Rybolovlev in the enterprise. As a result of the new issuance, over 10 thousand employees - minority shareholders lost half of their shares, and structures controlled by Dmitry Rybolovlev increased
their stake almost two-fold.
Source: Rossiyskaya Gazeta on 10.12.1999
In 2000, Uralkali ceased to cooperate with the IPC. Rybolovlev first traded through an enterprise shared with the Canadian Canpotex, then continued working independently, and in 2005 he agreed with the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on participation in the Belarusian Potash Company (BPC), which became the exclusive exporter of Uralkali's products and Belaruskali. Rybolovlev headed the Board of Directors of BPC.
Source: Russian Forbes, May 2008
In October 2000 Rybolovlev treacherously refused to support the election the governor of the Perm region Gennady Igumnov, whereas he was very indebted to him: in his time Igumnov publicly expressed support for Rybolovlev, when the latter had been accused of murdering the director of Petrochemicals. It all happened at a meeting between the owner of the “PFP group” Andrei Kuzyaev, deputy Pokhmelkin, the mayor of Perm Yuri Trutnev, Igumnov and Rybolovlev (that tandem discussed the governor's chair in the Perm region; then Rybolovlev refused to support candidate Igumnova for the new governor's term . Later Rybolovlev invested in the campaign of Trutnev, who won in the first round; thus Trutnev remained bound towards Rybolovlev for a long time afterward . When the reporters asked Rybolovlev why he hadn't supported Igumnov in the election, he replied that he hadn't because Igumnov demanded to transfer the Uralkali share to his daughter Elena Arzumanova.
Source: Russian Forbes, May 2008
The media wrote about a long-term confrontation between Rybolovlev and Gregory (Harry) Luchansky, head of the Austrian company “Nordeks”. He owns nearly 25 percent stake in Silvinit "- Rybolovlev's stake in this company is about the same. Luchansky tries to seize the share of Rybolovlev in the potash companies. At one time the sale of the products had been controlled by International Potash Company (IWC), Luchansky instilled his allies there. Later, Rybolovlev got out of control of the IPC, while "Nordeks" acquired a stake in the Austrian firm “Belurs" which became the largest trader of potash fertilizers in the world. Harry Luchansky controlled the Ventspil potassium terminal also; this is the only sea route of potassium between the republics of the CIS. Thus Luchansky cut Rybolovlev of the financial flows and transportation of fertilizers.
Source: Vedomosti 20.06.2006
In the fall of 2006, Rybolovlev stopped placing shares on the London Stock Exchangeat the supreme moment. Rybolovlev announced the decision to stop IPO proceeding one week before the accident at one of his mines. They rumored that Rybolovlev had learnt about the disaster in advance and decided not to take a risk. Because the company planned to place nearly 30% of the shares, and upon the occurrence of the disaster the securities would collapse, and the assets for a would be bought up for a pittance by its competitors. In autumn 2007, Rybolovlev conducted IPO of Uralkali; the company attracted more than $ 1 billion, and became much more expensive.
Source: "Century" from 18.06.07
The business of Rybolovlev was threatened in 2006, then an accident occurred at one of the mines of Uralkali - the company decided to flood the mine, but because of the rocks' erosion a failure had formed in its place. A failure in a filling technology was mentioned among the causes of the accident; they said that greedy Rybolovlev saved money on a full tab, thus he almost doubled the fill factor of voids, although the formal laying was carried out, and funds for it came not only from the potash company, but also from the budget money. According to the official conclusion of the first commission, natural anomalies turned out to be the reasons for the disaster. The scale of the disaster was enormous: it damaged railways, power facilities, majority of the inhabitants of Berezniki became homeless. A part of the expenses was reimbursed by Uralkaliy, another part – by the federal and regional budgets. They have not decided yet on who should compensate the damages of the potassium salt reserves loss. The state commission was written off a part of reserves in November 2009, the calculation of the rest of the damage is now conducted by members of “Rosnedr”. Minister of Energy Sergei Shmatko said that Uralkali had to compensate for a number of other costs, including the costs of providing energy to Berezniki, which has made up 2.7 billion rubles by the moment.
Source: Vedomosti on 19/02/2010, Perm neighbors "from 08.12.2008
Two years after the accident Dmitry Rybolovlev had problems again: Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said that there would be a new investigation of the accident. Fearful of the renewed investigation, Mr. Rybolovlev preferred to reimburse part of the damage – he offered to help finance the construction of the bypass railroad at 7-8 billion rubles, as in case of resumption of the audit and conviction of Rybolovlev would cause huge fines to his company and possible loss of the business. A number of the media assumed that Sechin was acting with the knowledge of Vladimir Putin in order to gain control over Uralkali and to make it a public company. Since the beginning of the new investigation the company shares had cheapened at 70 %. Some businessmen openly supported Rybolovlev, accusing the government of capture attacks to a private business. One of those who sided with the owner of Uralkali appeared to be Marina Alekseenkova, vice president at Renaissance Capital. In support of the company Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Yuri Trutnev also commented. They said that Yuri Trutnev was a beneficiary of OAO Uralkali. The media had a different opinion: the new test was the result of the activation of Oleg Lomakin (Prokop), once convicted for the murder of director in "Neftechimik" Panteleymonov.
Source: «The New York Times» from 05 декабря 2008
The conflict around the name of Rybolovlev burst in 2008 when two companies - Uralkali and Silvinit (Rybolovlev owns 25 percent of shares in it) - claimed the lands of Verkhnekamskoye deposit.”Silvinit” won an auction, but Rybolovlev (who owns a large stake in the company and has long dreamed of control over "Silvinit") promised to block the attraction of credits on the development of the site. Owners of "Silvinit, in turn, suggested Rybolovlev $ 2 billion for his stake.
Source: Russian Forbes, May 2008
In June 2008 the media wrote about an acquisition of the most expensive private home in the U.S. by Rybolovlev - he bought a mansion in Palm Beach, Florida from billionaire Donald Trump for $ 100 million. The mansion is located on the ocean in an area of 2.6 hectares and has a private beach 145 meters long. Total area of residential house is more than 3 thousand square meters
Source: "Kommersant" from 21.06.2008
The scandal involving Dmitry Rybolovlev erupted in late 2008, when his wife Elena Rybolovleva told about the husband's endless infidelities and filed for divorce and division of property in several courts - in Russia,Virgin Islands, USA, Cyprus, UK and Singapore (where there was the property of Rybolovlev), with a request to receive half of her husband's fortune. Under her petition the operations with three companies of Rybolovlev and the assets owned by them were arrested -Xitrans Finance, Ringam Investment Finance and Treehouse Capital. In June 2009 the Court of the British Virgin Islands removed an attachment of the companies by the request of Rybolovleva; as it turned out, they had been transferred under the management of the trust. It also turned out that the main asset of Dmitry Rybolovlev had been in another trust since 2005; that was the company Madura Holding owning shares in Uralkali and Silvinit.
Source: "Kommersant (Perm)" of 27.08.2009, "Kommersant" from 26.08.2009
Another conflict in the Rybolovlev family spilled into the media pages after Rybolovlev demanded to recover the costs of litigation at 429 thousand 300 dollars from the wife Elena Rybolovleva.
Source Vedomosti 27.08.2009
Recently the name of Rybolovlev has been associated with Nikita Belykh, the Governor of the Kirov region. The latter began engaging development projects after he had failed his political career in the governor's office. These include the hotel business (established by BS Hospitality Management, which subsidiary is "Hotels of the Urals" - franchise partner of Hilton Hotels Corporation). Currently one of the leading hotels in Perm, Hilton Garden Inn is under the direction of the company BS Hospitality Management ( they had spent over 250 million for its construction and renovation ); another hotel Hilton Doubletree is in process. Recently, the governor of the Kirov region has been often seen in Perm meeting with Dmitry Rybolovlev. According to rumors, Rybolovlev is interested not only in the financing of various image projects (in addition to his core business), but also in development. Presumably, negotiationson cooperation between Belykh and Rybolovlev finished successful.
Source: igolkin from 25.12.2009