Article: Grocers set up shop among the Russian billionaires&
Interesting piece in JRL today; I just thought I'd throw it out for reading/discussion. Are these three men and their companies well-known in Russia: Rogachev/"Pyaterochka," Tariko, and Galitsky/"Magnit?"
#8
The Times (UK)
February 15, 2006
Grocers set up shop among the Russian billionaires
From Jeremy Page in Moscow
THE number of dollar billionaires in Russia leapt to 50 from 39 last year thanks to an oildriven consumer boom, according to a new Russian rich list.
But it is not just the number of billionaires that is causing a stir this year; it is the type of businessmen who are on the list compiled by the business magazine Finans.
As last year, it is topped by Roman Abramovich, the former oil tycoon who owns Chelsea Football Club and governs the remote eastern region of Chukotka. And, as before, most of the mega-rich 39 of the top 50 made their fortunes in oil, gas or metals.
However, the list now includes the first dollar billionaires to have built retail businesses from scratch rather than seizing state assets in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. They are being hailed as the poster boys of a new generation of business leaders who are rising to prominence as fast as the oligarchs of the 1990s are falling from grace.
Top among them is Andrei Rogachev, 41, the founder of Pyaterochka, one of the largest discount grocery chains in Russia. Set up in 1999, Pyaterochka sold its first shares to public investors in London last year, which boosted Mr Rogachev’s fortune to an estimated $1.2 billion (
