Roman Abramovich Net Worth, Roman Abramovich's stake in steel giant Evraz lost almost two thirds of its value in 2013, driven down by falling steel prices and a global steel glut. His 18% stake in Highland Gold Mining also did poorly, falling 45%.
But he still likes metals. Together with his Evraz partner, billionaire Alexander Abramov, in April 2013 he bought a 5.9% stake in Norilsk Nickel from billionaire Vladimir Potanin's conglomerate, Interros, and from UC Rusal, the huge aluminum company headed by billionaire Oleg Deripaska.
Abramovich was orphaned as a child and dropped out of college, then made his fortune in a series of controversial oil export deals in the early 1990s. He teamed up with billionaire Boris Berezovsky to take over oil producer Sibneft at a fraction of its market value. He sold his stake in Russian Aluminum to Deripaska, and a 73% stake in Sibneft to gas titan Gazprom for $13 billion in 2005.
In August 2012 he won a suit in the High Court in London brought by Berezovsky, who had been seeking $5.6 billion he claimed Abramovich failed to pay for stakes in Sibneft and Rusal. In July 2013 Abramovich said goodbye to Chukotka, stepping down from his post as Duma chairman for the icy autonomous region in Russia's far east where he had previously been governor (a new law bans Russian civil servants from holding assets abroad).
For 12 years, he and his companies invested $2.5 billion in the region. He owns the U.K.'s Chelsea soccer team. He also owns the world's largest yacht, the 533-foot Eclipse, which cost him $400 million in 2010. He has a 377-foot ice boat, the Luna, a Boeing 767 and homes in London, France, St. Barts, Colorado and Los Angeles. His large art collection includes a collection of 40 paintings by Ilya Kabakov, the most expensive living Russian artist, which he bought from U.S. collector John L. Stewart in January 2013.
