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| Leonard Blavatnik* |
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| RESULTS 2005 |
Ranking |
Worth |
Industry |
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25= |
£1,300m |
Industry |
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| It is not often that Roman Abramovich (qv) comes second, but last summer the football-loving oligarch was outbid by Blavatnik, a fellow Russian, in the purchase of a mansion in Kensington Park Gardens — at £41m, one of London's most expensive homes. Len, as he is known, left Russia in 1978, arriving in New York as a penniless refugee and working his way through Columbia University and Harvard Business School. In 1986 he founded Access Industries, a Manhattan-based industrial investment firm, but he made his fortune in Russia after the fall of communism. Last year's move to London gives him access to the world's most important financial centre for oil, gas and metals. Blavatnik, 47, formed Renova with an old school friend, Viktor Vekselberg, in 1990. Their big coup was the 2003 formation of TNK-BP, now Russia's third largest oil company, in a deal that netted them a reported £3 billion and a 50% stake. Blavatnik's wealth has been put at £2.6 billion; we settle for half that, as a sighting shot. |
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| RESULTS 2004 |
Ranking |
New entry |
Worth |
£m |
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