Roman Abramovich’s golden age kicked off in the early 2000s. Back then, the Russian businessman began investing billions in the London economy after amassing a fortune selling off privatized assets acquired from the former Soviet Union, including the oil giant Sibneft.
His popularity grew thanks to his purchase of Chelsea Football Club in 2003. He did so for €165 million before selling it in May 2022 in a deal vetted by the UK government, and whose new owner, headed by Todd Boehly , agreed to pay 3 billion euros and promised another 2 billion euros in additional investment in the club.
However, everything changed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Abramovich, who was sanctioned in March by the United Kingdom and the European Union, gradually lost his prized possessions in the English capital, from Chelsea to luxury houses and a stake in the steel group Evraz Plc., his largest listed asset before the conflict. The company’s shares plunged 87% this year before being frozen.
The last crochet Roman Abramovich has received came in July when MHC, which operated as part of his family office before the conflict, filed for liquidation. According to Bloomberg reports, his main assets in London were worth about 4.8 billion euros before the invasion, almost a third of his total fortune at the time.
Shortly before appearing on the UK sanctions list, Abramovich tried to divest two properties in London. One was his Kensington mansion, while the other was a penthouse on the Chelsea Waterfront. It must be clarified that Abramovich cannot sell his properties while he is under UK sanctions, and any cash he has in the country remains frozen in the accounts.
Outside the UK, Abramovich’s assets include houses in France and Russia, as well as superyachts and private jets, which are now the subject of a legal fight in the US over alleged sanctions violations. In addition, he provided most of the 6 billion euros behind Concord Management, which he used to invest in more than 100 hedge funds and private equity firms fighting to divest themselves of capital from him.
Türkiye, Portugal, Dubai…
After the Russian invasion, the 55-year-old oligarch was forced to move two of his yachts into Turkish waters to avoid possible asset seizures in Europe. He, too, has been looking for a house on Dubai’s exclusive Palm Jumeirah, while his private jets have been in Dubai or Moscow since March.
In 2021, Abramovich became a Portuguese citizen under a law that offers naturalization to the descendants of Sephardic Jews (in 2018 he obtained Israeli nationality) who were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula. Given this, Portugal has opened an investigation into the decision.
Roman Abramovich currently has a net worth of around €10.5 billion, down 41.6% this year, according to the Bloomberg Wealth Index.
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