Feb 16, 2009

Reversal of Fortune


While Russia’s tentative middle class has suffered dearly amidst the economic downturn, our hearts really go out to the country’s hyper-rich. They’ve lost billions.

According to a 2009 list by the magazine Finans:

--Oleg Deripaska has lost 85 percent of his wealth – from $40 billion to $4.9 billion.
--Roman Abramovich has lost just under half of his fortune, from $23 billion to a mere $13.9
--Vladimir Lisin, who owns NLMK, is down 65 percent to $7.7 billion.
--Alexei Mordashov over at Severstal is down 81 percent to $4.1 billion.

However, not everyone was a looser last year. Mikhail Prokhorov has actually made money after he sold his stake in Norilsk Nickel (at the height of the commodities boom). Prokhorov’s personal fortune went from $14.1 billion to $21.5 billion. Maybe now he’ll be able to fund his dream-child, a magazine-social networking forum called Snob.

Although, at the rate things are going, he may be the only reader.

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