The Russian version of the well-known “Forbes” magazine has published a list of the top 100 richest businessmen. We at “168 Hours” think that the list will be pretty interesting for our readers, but we have only been able to list the top 10 due to the large list.
Thirty-four year old Danil Khachaturov was the only richest Armenian businessman out of the top 100. We’ll talk about him later.
It is worth mentioning that the “Forbes” specialists don’t look at the businessman’s bank account, but rather the value of his business when it comes to making calculations. The value of business is estimated based on the value of the stock a businessman owns in different companies. Property value is estimated by the market price in the stock market. The estimations have been based on the data as of March 24, 2006.
“Forbes” specialists also draw their attention to the property of the businessman’s family or relatives because registering property on behalf of someone else is not only common in Armenia. With this said, as a reminder, the “Forbes” specialists say that the results are not official. Let’s see what the entire image looks like.
In a year, businessmen of the “Golden 100” non-official list have doubled their incomes and the entire amount makes up 248 billion dollars. The “cheapest entrance fee” to get in this list is 450 million dollars. The businessman must have no less than 76 billion dollars to be in the top 10. You can take a look at the top contenders below, headed by Roman Abramovich.
1. Roman Abramovich
18.3 billion dollars
Oil, aluminum
39-years old, married, has five children
2. Vagit Alekseyov
12.7 billion dollars
Oil
55-years old, married, has one son
3. Vladimir Lisin
11.3 billion dollars
Black metallurgy
50-years old, married, has three children
4. Mikhail Fridman
10.4 billion dollars
Oil, finances, communications
42-years old, married, has two children
5. Victor Vetselberg
10.1 billion dollars
Oil, color metallurgy
49-years old, married, has two children
6. Oleg Deripaska
9 billion dollars
Color metallurgy
38-years old, married, has two children
7. Aleksey Mordashov
8.5 billion dollars
Black metallurgy
40-years old, married, has three children
8. Vladimir Yevtusherlov
7.7 billion dollars
Communications, electronics, finances
57-years old, married, has two children
9. Vladimir Potanin
7.6 billion dollars
Color metallurgy
45-years old, married, has three children
10. Mikhail Prokhorov
7.6 billion dollars
Color metallurgy
41-years old, single
I’m not proud of my photographs
This is what our Armenian compatriot Danil Khachaturov says. The 34-year old businessman is involved in financing and real estate and has 760 billion dollars. He places 65th in the “Golden 100”.
People are always interested in finding out information about the life and career of businessmen like Danil Khachaturov. This is mainly based on the fact that he hasn’t accumulated money by stealing “from the start”, like many other businessmen. True, it would be wrong to say that he has worked tirelessly to get that rich. Everyone knows that it’s impossible to earn a million through hard work. But it’s a fact that the young businessman has led the right kind of politics and knows how to manage his business.
Danil Khachaturov was born in Moscow in 1971. He has graduated from the Institute of Construction and Engineering of Moscow attaché to the Russian government. He has worked as an alder economist for the maritime shareholding bank. Danil has led the investment and financing politics of the “Bin” company during 1997 and 2000-first as vice-president and later on elder vice-president. He has also been vice-president of the “SlavOilGasStrakh” company from 2000 to 2002. Since May 2002, Danil has been working as the chief director of the “RosGosStrakh” open-stock company. In July of the same year, he was appointed as executive director of the company. He is the chief director of the company as of April 2004.
This, of course, doesn’t say a lot about how Danil accumulated 760 million dollars. He started the rise back in April 2001. The young top-manager of “SlavOil” took the risk of paying a couple of million dollars to “RosGosStrakh” for 9% of the shareholdings. Later on, Danil and his colleagues realized that that investment is not going to be a scenario, but rather strategic. In summer 2003, they owned 75% of the company’s stocks.
But just how did Danil Khachaturov accumulate his preliminary capital, which was necessary to make such an investment? In his words, the basis for capital is the stock, including shareholdings, state dividends, etc.
“If you noticed, I have one of the monitors of the RTS (Russian Trading System). I have always been trading and do it to this day,” said Danil Khachaturov in his interview given to sostar.ru. We’re talking about the trade of stocks. Since there is no market for that in Armenia, let’s state the businessman’s words, as to how you can make millions without putting in a lot of effort.
“I’ll give you an example of how I was able to earn a lot of money. In early 2000, I came to “SlavOil” and I got a huge shareholding packet of one of the sister companies-“Megaoilgas”. I just knew that I was going to work well. I knew the staff and was certain that the president-Mikhail Gutsereyev- would keep his business moving forward. As a result, when I came to the company, one shareholding of “Megaoilgas” cost one dollar and 15 dollars when I left. Today, it costs 20 dollars,” says Khachaturov.
Khachaturov talks so jokingly and easily about making millions that it seems as though anyone can do it. For example, the “RosGosStrakh” transaction, in Danil’s words, was an addiction. At first, he and his colleague Ruben Vartanyan (“Troyka Dialog”) had decided to get 9% of the ban right, with the purpose of selling it later. Then, when the government sold yet another 40% of shareholdings, the young businessmen decided not to satisfy themselves with that and tried “doing the impossible”. According to Khachaturov, it’s not hard for the financier to find the 30-50 million dollars needed to start. What’s hard is paying that money back. The businessman admits that they took a huge risk. As we all know, whoever doesn’t take risks, can’t get anywhere in life. Khachaturov was not one to back down. We present his interview given to “Forbes” so our readers will better understand his mentality.
– Do you have any problems with setting your goals? You made the first million, then ten million. What’s next for you?
– I don’t have any goals when it comes to finances. If you set a goal to accumulate as much money as you can, then when you get really rich, you lose interest in things. I want to do the best I can to make my company the first worldwide.
– I understand that. My question is, why do you need all that?
– Do you want to know what forces me to get up and go to work? I’m not overwhelmed with having the opportunity to buy a plane or a big house. My inspiration is “RosGosStrakh”. I get up in the morning and go to work because of that company. We have 100,000 workers. We have to be the best, I have to make them the best. It’s my responsibility and I have to prove to myself that I can handle the job. We have already proved a lot, but that’s not enough. I have more inner motivation now. I must show my workers that we are not inferior to the Czechs, the Polish and others, and that we will also reach the top. For example, I decided to be involved in hockey and sponsor the “Dynamo” team of Moscow. The team went on to become Russia’s hockey champion. If we are sponsors, then the team must be #1. However, we aren’t sponsoring this year. We did what we had to do.
– So, is striving to be #1 what keeps you going?
– Yes, 100%, just like any man.
– You have to show fantastic willpower everyday in order to be #1…
– If you have decided to be #1, there is no alternative. I remember when Oscar De La Hoya (boxing champion-B.T.) came out in the ring again to defend his championship. The speaker said that he didn’t understand what make the boxer come and get his head pounded when he already has more than 150 million dollars. He had to prove to himself that he is still the best. There are people who keep their photographs with famous people to remind them of how successful they were at the time. I’m not like that.”