Rybolovlev sold two Russian fertilizer producers for more than $7 billion in 2010 and 2011. He also sold almost $1 billion of Uralkali stock at the company's 2007 initial public offering and bought a collection of art, jewelry, homes, yachts as well as stakes in the Bank of Cyprus and the AS Monaco football club.
The majority of Rybolovlev's fortune is derived from his sale of two Russian fertilizer companies, Uralkali and Silvinit. He sold $950 million of Uralkali stock during the company's initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in 2007. He then sold his remaining stake in Uralkali and 20% of Silvinit for more than $7 billion in 2010 and 2011. He sold a 50% interest in Kama Oil to Russia's oil producer Lukoil for $400 million in May 2013.
Ownership of the closely held businesses wasn't disclosed prior to the above sales. It's assumed in this analysis that they were fully-owned by the billionaire because there's no indication he had outside partners.
Rybolovlev acquired a 10% stake in publicly traded Bank of Cyprus in 2010 and holds less than 1% stake now, according to his representative. He bought a 67% stake in the AS Monaco soccer team in 2011, according to an official press release. It's valued using the average of enterprise value-to-sales, enterprise value-to-Ebitda multiples of two publicly traded peer companies: Manchester United and Ajax. The team is held in trust for his daughter.
The value of the billionaire's art, yachts, homes and jewelry is based on testimony made by Rybolovlev and his wife, Elena, during their divorce proceedings, as well as British Virgin Islands court fillings served in March 2015 by trusts of his daughters against art dealer Yves Bouvier.
A Geneva court ordered him to pay $4.5 billion to settle the divorce in May 2014. The award was slashed to $605 million in June 2015. He and wife announced an amicable divorce settlement in October 2015.
Dmitry Rybolovlev was born in Perm, Russia, to a family of doctors, in 1966. He was an avid reader as a youth, and was particularly affected by Theodore Dreiser's Trilogy of Desire, a story about a streetcar tycoon in Chicago. He attended the Perm Medical Institute and upon graduation in 1990 began working in the cardiology department of a local emergency room. In the declining economy after the fall of the Soviet Union, he started providing magnetic therapy for corporate clients, using a treatment method developed by his father.
Forced to barter with his cash-strapped patients, he created a side business selling the goods he received for his medical services. He later moved to Moscow, got a brokerage license, and opened a trading firm in Perm in 1992. His first clients were his former patients. Two years later he founded a bank and began to buy shares in a number of local firms. He invested in fertilizer maker Uralkali in early 1990s, eventually building up a stake of about 80 percent.
Rybolovlev's interest in the company was valued below $100 million in 2000. Seven years later, the company sold shares in an initial public offering in London bringing him almost $1 billion. He sold the rest of his shares and his 20 percent stake in fertilizer company Silvinit, within four years, collecting more than $7 billion.
Fearing for the safety of his family in the violent post-Soviet business environment, he sent his wife and daughter to live in Switzerland while he remained in Russia. He was arrested in 1996 and charged with initiating a contract killing, and was released after almost a year in prison when the actual culprits were found. He was acquitted in 1997.
His wife, Elena, a former colleague in medical school, sued him for divorce in Geneva in 2008, seeking $6 billion. Disputed in the suit was an art collection valued at more than $500 million, an $80 million yacht, $36 million in jewelry, homes in New York, Monaco and Palm Beach, and bank accounts in Cyprus, the UK, Switzerland, the US and the British Virgin Islands. A Geneva court awarded Rybolovleva the equivalent of half his fortune in May 2014. The award was slashed to $605 million in June 2015 and was appealed. He and wife announced amicable divorce settlement in October 2015.
Rybolovlev lives in Monaco. He owns a majority stake in the AS Monaco soccer team.