Roman Abramowitsch Fortune

Short introduction

Roman Abramovich, who was born in Russia but also has Israeli citizenship, is considered one of the richest men in the world. The graduate engineer founded his first company at the age of 21. He quickly acquired a steadily growing fortune, primarily through business in the oil sector. However, he is known to many mainly because of his commitment as the owner of the English football club Chelsea FC.

Early life

Roman Abramovich was born in Saratov in 1966. His mother died when he was one and a half years old, his father when he was four years old. He grew up with his uncle, who was an oil engineer, up to the age of eight. He later moved to another uncle in Moscow, where he studied engineering after school. He founded his first company in 1987, which, however, only produced rubber ducks or soccer balls. Nevertheless, the cornerstone for his career as an entrepreneur was laid. Between 1993 and 1996 he took over the management of the Moscow office of an oil trading company from Switzerland. From then on he had a foot in the Russian oil industry, which established his later immense wealth. The decisive factor was that he met Boris Beresowski in 1992, who at the time was both an influential entrepreneur and a politician in Russia, which was in transition. By becoming his partner, Roman Abramowitsch gained access to the most important contacts in the country in politics and business.

Career

So he built up a large empire alongside Boris Beresowski. The most important company among them was Sibneft, Russia’s fifth largest oil company at that time. But an airline, a car company and many other companies quickly became part of Abramovich. He was also influential politically during this time and is considered one of the pioneers of the change of power in Russia from Boris Yeltsin to Vladimir Putin. Of course, this proximity to the new head of state of Russia also provided many advantages in Roman Abramovich’s economic activities.

At that time, he mainly dealt with the largest Russian refinery in Omsk. This later became the heart of the Sibneft group, which Roman Abramowitsch had sold to Gazprom for a long time. When Mikhail Khodorkovsky – another Russian oligarch – was tried, Roman Abramovich began to sell most of his shares in the company to other Russian companies. However, he remained active with companies in Russia.

However, his career also spanned a long time as governor in a Russian province. From 2000 to 2008 he was governor of the Chukotka region. In addition to his hobbyhorse, the Chelsea FC football club in England, he also invested several million of his wealth in the infrastructure in that region, such as in hospitals, streets and social facilities.

After many years in the UK, he recently did not renew his application for a residence permit. He actually wanted to move to Switzerland, where he was rejected as a threat to Switzerland’s reputation. Abramovich is repeatedly associated with money laundering. So he settled in Israel and also received their citizenship, for which as son of Jewish parents no further special conditions had to be fulfilled.

Career highlights

He would certainly consider the purchase of Chelsea FC in 2003 and all the successes associated with it as the highlight of his life. In turn, winning the Champions League in 2012 – in the final in Munich against FC Bayern based there – should be considered the greatest success.

Overall, however, Roman Abramowitsch’s entire career can be seen as a single success story. As an early orphan, having made it into one of the richest men in the world, and without any significant start-up capital, is an extremely impressive vita.

Famous quotes

Very few quotes from Roman Abramovich are known. Which also has its reason in the first quote that has been handed down from him.

• “I never make any public statements. Or at least I try never to make any public statements. ”
• “You can’t buy happiness with money, just independence.”
• “I can hardly make money with Chelsea FC. It’s more about fun, success and trophies. ”

Amazing facts

He was longer with three different women with whom he has a total of seven children. Otherwise, see the first quote, little is known about his preferences and private life.

However, he owns three super luxury yachts, the last one of which was the second largest in the world at the time. In addition to various aircraft, there are also two submarines, the maintenance of which alone costs over 1 million euros a year. Roman Abramowitsch also bought several castles in Central Europe, including the Leitenschlössl in Garmisch-Patenkirchen and the Waldschlössl in Burgau.

To date, he has invested an estimated three-quarter billion euros in cash and salaries in Chelsea. For a certain time he also had small shares in CSKA Moscow. Recently, however, there were serious rumors that he wanted to sell Chelsea FC.