Torres fee small change for Abramovich as Chelsea owner's wealth revealed - 7M sport

Torres fee small change for Abramovich as Chelsea owner's wealth revealed



I have a say

Posted Thursday, February 17, 2011 by theguardian.com

Russian authorities release for the first time details of oligarch's assets, and estimate his fortune to be worth more than £11bn

Torres fee small change for Abramovich as Chelsea owner's wealth revealed
Roman Abramovich's assets include a £200m mansion in the south of France.

The Russian authorities have allowed a rare glimpse into the sprawling wealth of Roman Abramovich with the release for the first time of details of his Russian bank accounts and a list of his luxury homes, cars and land.

The assets of the Chelsea Football Club owner ranged from a modest VW Golf to a £200m chateau in the south of France, and emerged from a declaration required for next month's state parliament election in the Far Eastern province of Chukotka, where Abramovich is standing to be a parliamentary deputy.

The details in the document, released on Wednesday by Russia's election commission, provide a snapshot of a billionaire oligarch on the rise again, after losing – according to Forbes magazine – two-thirds of his wealth in the global downturn. Abramovich is now thought to be worth more than $11bn, and is estimated to be Russia's fourth richest man.

The file details his 10 homes in Russia, London, Colorado, France and the Caribbean, as well as land holdings, seven cars and, for the first time, the contents of 22 Russian bank accounts.

It shows that as of December 2010 he held 3.38bn roubles in cash in Russian accounts, the equivalent of £70m, and he earned £3m in interest on his bank deposits in the previous year.

"It is the first time it has been published in this format because of the new rules," said his spokesman, John Mann, in Moscow. "This shows the interest income on his bank deposits. It is not his full income."

The figures represent just a fraction of the 44-year-old's oil fortune, much of which is held in his companies including Millhouse Capital, Eucla Investments Limited, Primerod International Limited, and Chelsea Limited, which owns the Premier League team in which he has invested at least £500m, including last month a record British transfer fee of £50m on the Spain and former Liverpool striker Fernando Torres.

The declaration was welcomed by campaigners for greater transparency in Russia, but they called for much more information. "Even if there's a small sliver of light it's already easier to see," said Elena Panfilova, head of Transparency International's Moscow bureau. "We have seen one piece [of his wealth], and hopefully more will appear."

Mann said he hoped it would put paid to rumours about Abramovich's tax status.

"Perhaps the fact that the Russian properties are listed first will encourage reporters to stop falsely reporting that his principle home is London," Mann said. "It will also stop people reporting on properties he has never owned."

The declaration is perhaps more likely to increase fascination with Abramovich's wealth and how he spends his money.

There are details of two large Moscow homes, including Leonid Brezhnev's renovated former residence, seven flats in Belgravia converted into a mansion estimated to be worth £150m, two homes in St Barts in the Caribbean, and a pair of ski chalets in Colorado.

His relatively modest taste in cars stands out, with the most luxurious of seven listed being a Mercedes S500L and a BMW 760Li. There is a also a four-year-old Mercedes people carrier, a three-year-old Range Rover and the four-year-old Volkswagen, worth around £7,000 on the second-hand market.

Asked why Abramovich's cars were not more opulent, Mann said: "He's a sensible guy, and I guess he doesn't want to give that image."

It is unlikely that the limited facts disclosed about Abramovich's total fortune will placate the residents of Chukotka, where official estimates put the average income at £11,000 a year. For example, the file does not feature any details of his four super-yachts, including the £300m bullet-proofed 164m-long Eclipse.

Abramovich was the governor of Chukotka, across the Baring strait from Alaska, from 2000 to 2008, and spent a reported $2bn on public facilities as part of Putin's attempts to require oligarchs to use their wealth to give back to society.

Abramovich's declaration of wealth in December 2010 includes:

• 22 Russian bank accounts containing £70m in cash.

• £3m a year earned in interest on deposits in 2009.

• Two homes in Moscow, seven flats in London [thought to be incorporated to form a mansion], three homes in France [including two in St Barts], two in the USA and two in Chukotka, north-east Russia.

• 155,369 sq metres of Moscow commercial real estate, 162,000 sq metres in the US.

• Seven cars: two BMWs, three Mercedes, a VW, and Range Rover

• 100% ownership of Chelsea Limited, 100% of Lowndes Square Management Company Limited, 100% of Croe France Chateau de la Croe, and Eucla Investments Limited, 25% of Primerod International Limited, 100% of Wotton Overseas Holdings Limited, 100% of Camberley International Investments Limited.



Attention: Third parties may advertise their products and/or services on our website.7M does not warrant the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of their contents.
Your dealings with such third parties are solely between you and such third parties and we shall not be liable in any way for any loss or damage of any sort incurred by you.