Kolomoisky Igor is a Ukrainian businessman, co-owner and at the same time a member of the supervisory board of Privatbank. In addition, this businessman also owns a large number of other assets included in the conditionally called Privat group. In particular, he is a co-owner of the 1 + 1 media group operating in Ukraine, holds the position of chairman of the supervisory board of the Dnipro football club, and is also vice president of the entire Football Federation of Ukraine. Today, he is one of the wealthiest citizens of Israel and Ukraine.
The origin of business
Igor Kolomoisky was born in 1963 on February 13 in Dnepropetrovsk, where he lives to this day. In 1985, he was educated at the Dnepropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute, after which he was awarded the specialty of metallurgical engineer. Further, in his own words, Igor Kolomoisky worked at various enterprises, but the media say that his business career was already starting then, according to some reports, by 1991 he had already managed to earn the first million by trading in computers, as well as various organizational techniques.
Over time, he continued to do business, as a result of which he built one of the most influential and powerful industrial and financial empires in Ukraine. The media constantly noted his leading position in the Privat group, and this concerned not only the share of ownership, but also the direct participation of the businessman in making various decisions.
Opening of "Privatbank"
The foundation of this group is Privatbank, which Igor Kolomoisky founded in 1992, as well as its co-founders Leonid Miloslavsky, Gennady Bogolyubov, as well as Alexei Martynov, the latter being no longer a co-owner of this business. It is worth noting that another creator of Privatbank is businessman no less well-known in Ukraine, Sergey Tigipko, who was also its shareholder.
As Alexey Martynov himself said, after Tigipko left for the government, the shareholders completely redeemed his share of the business. According to some reports, Tigipko got a certain part of the assets of the Privat Group, including also the Kiev-Privat Bank, which later became the basis for the TAS financial group.
Privat
Giving an interview to Zerkalo Nedeli back in 2005, Igor Valerievich Kolomoisky said that he personally owned about 30% of the bank’s total shares, and in the same interview he called the Privat group a phantom and an exclusively journalistic term having no foundation. According to him, as in any other case, the shareholders of Privatbank also have a business other than banking, while there is no connection between them. However, regardless of this, to this day Igor Kolomoysky is mentioned in the press as one of the co-owners of the Privat phantom group.
Press statements
Already at the time of July 2006, Kolomoisky said that he owned approximately 46% of the total number of shares of his own bank, and in 2007 during a journalistic investigation it was noted that he had 41% of the shares of this bank, as well as many blocks of shares six Ukrainian regional energy companies (approximately 20% each), while together with his partners, he also owns 41% of the shares of Dniproazot, Ukrnafta and many others. In particular, he owns a controlling stake in Neftekhimik Prykarpattya, Galichiny and others.
In the same 2007, it was said that the Privat group owns about 20% of the total number of production capacities in the manufacture of ferroalloys around the world, and in December this year Igor Kolomoisky (photo shown above) entered Alexander Abramov’s Evraz Group business and Roman Abramovich (the media said that he owns up to 10% of the company). The total value of all enterprises belonging to the Privat Group, at the moment, amounted to more than $ 13 billion.
In 2009, the site of Privatbank posted information regarding its shareholders, which stated that 49% of all shares in the company belonged to Igor Kolomoisky, while 48% belonged to his partner Bogolyubov. That is why Bogolyubov has always been known as an equal partner of this businessman, and it was also known that under such conditions they have been cooperating for more than 20 years.
How does he run his business?
The unique business style that Igor Kolomoysky followed was always noted. The biography of the businessman, as well as the words of experts, indicate that he conducts a fairly tough business, trying to defend his own interests to the smallest detail and at the same time he can revise the rules of the game in the process of this game. The businessman’s surname has repeatedly appeared in a wide variety of conflicts, including litigation with Viktor Pinchuk unfolding around the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant. In addition, in 2005 he was also a participant in a lawsuit with co-owners of the 1 + 1 TV channel regarding the fact that he owns 70% of this media asset.
Kolomoisky and SME
In 2007, the Kolomoisky family, Igor Valerievich, acquired 3% of the shares of the largest television company in Eastern Europe CME, for which it paid $ 110 million. This company owns various leading television companies operating in Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovenia, and also controls the operation of the channel "1 + 1", and Kolomoisky himself was also included in the board of directors.
In 2008, SME announced that a 30% stake in 1 + 1 was bought back from Fuchsman and Rodnyansky at a price of $ 219.6 million, while $ 140 million of this amount belonged to Igor Kolomoisky and represented compensation for the option to purchase part shares in "1 + 1", which was never sold by him. Subsequently, another 10% of the shares of this television channel was purchased.
According to information from April 2009, Igor Kolomoisky received an even greater part of the shares in the SME company. The businessman’s family owned 4% of the shares of this organization.
Media business
In July 2009, Kolomoisky decided that 100% of the shares of the TET television channel would be transferred to SME, after which he invested $ 100 million in the development of the 1 + 1 media group. Thus, this media group included, in addition to the 1 + 1 television channel itself, also channels such as TET, Kino, 1 + 1 International, and 49% of the shares in this group were owned by Kolomoysky, while 51% of the shares were owned by CME.
In January 2010, it became known that Igor Kolomoisky would receive 100% of the shares in the Kino and 1 + 1 TV channels from SME. Biography: the family paid $ 300 million for this transaction, and in addition, $ 19 million was also paid so that the 1 + 1 television channel could work during the transition period.
Among the other media assets owned by Kolomoisky, it is worth highlighting the “Kiev newspaper”, as well as the notorious news agency UNIAN. Among other things, along with the well-known businessman Vadim Rabinovich, Igor Kolomoisky also had his own Jewish News 1 television channel, which has been broadcasting in eight languages simultaneously since September 2011.
Air business
It should also be noted that Kolomoisky owns a fairly large number of airlines. In particular, in 2009 he acquired 22% of the shares owned by the Ukrainian company AeroSvit, while already in 2010 he owned approximately 52% of the total number of shares of the Ukrainian Aviation Group, which includes in addition to the AeroSvit company itself, also the Donbassaero and Dniproavia companies.
In the same year, the businessman acquired the Swedish company Skyways, and information appeared in the media that he was also the owner of the Swedish airline City Airline. In 2011, the businessman also decided to purchase a 70% stake in the airline from Denmark under the name Cimber Sterling. In May 2012, all foreign companies owned by Kolomoisky announced that they were bankrupt.
Crime
The top of the Privat group made attempts to resolve a number of conflict situations, not only by judicial means. It was often noted that she appeared in a variety of scandals around all kinds of raider attacks, and in particular this applies to the Kremenchug steel mill, as well as the Dnepropetrovsk oil extraction plants. Among other things, Igor Valerievich was also mentioned as one of the defendants in the power capture of the Ozerka market in Dnepropetrovsk.
In general, experts say that Kolomoisky’s business is closed, and the entrepreneur himself, in the vast majority of cases, prefers to preserve various intricate schemes characteristic of running a business in the early 90s of the twentieth century.
It is worth noting the fact that Igor Kolomoisky acted as a defendant in a criminal case in 2003. He was accused of allegedly threatening Sergey Karpenko, a lawyer and director of the Fargo consulting company, Dnipropetrovsk. According to media reports, Karpenko tried to contact law enforcement agencies in order to provide him with protection from businessman’s threats, but all these attempts were unsuccessful. In the same year, an attempt was made on the lawyer, as a result of which he was seriously injured, but not fatally.
In the summer of 2005, it was also decided to institute criminal proceedings against Kolomoisky. This time he was accused of ordering the murder of Karpenko.
What did the businessman himself say about this?
Kolomoisky has repeatedly said that everything that happens is directly connected with the threats of Konstantin Grigorishin to arrest the businessman in the event that he refuses to provide Grigorishin with a power of attorney to manage the shares of various energy companies.
A few days later a new decision was made regarding the criminal case: it was decided not to initiate it, as the investigation could not find any evidence that the businessman was at least somehow involved in the attempt on Karpenko.
Politics
There is the most controversial information regarding the political guidelines of Kolomoisky. It is known for certain that he actively supported the "orange camp" of politicians in Ukraine, since he himself said that he spent about $ 5 million to support the revolution. According to observers, the businessman initially sympathized with Yulia Tymoshenko, as she is his countryman, but over time, he still supported the team of Viktor Yushchenko, who became president of Ukraine.
One way or another, the media has repeatedly said that Kolomoisky finds allies in the current government in any situation, regardless of who currently runs the country, and at the same time tries not to rely on any particular political leader.
In 2014, Igor Kolomoisky became the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, but resigned from this post in 2015 after a scandal with insulting a journalist.
In October 2008, it was decided to select Igor Kolomoisky as the president of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine. The former leader was the aforementioned Vadim Rabinovich, who was the head of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress. It was reported that Kolomoisky will be present in this position for the next four years. In subsequent years, the businessman was elected chairman of the European Jewish Union, as well as the European Council of Jewish Communities.
