FX.co ★ Top 5 Russian billionaires that increase their wealth during pandemic

Leonid Boguslavsky

Leonid Boguslavsky opens the rating as his wealth significantly exceeds the wealth of other billionaires on the list. The luck came to the investor due to the DataDog. It developed software that has become extremely popular during the pandemic. DataDog is a service used to monitor cloud applications, servers, databases, and other tools. Shares of this popular company gained in value by three times from mid-March to the end of July. Thus, the price surged to $92 per share from $32. As a result, Boguslavsky’s wealth has also skyrocketed by 88% as he has the company's securities package in the amount of 8.2%. At the moment, his fortune totals $2.8 billion.

Suleiman Kerimov

The second place is occupied by the family of Dagestani Senator Suleyman Kerimov. The family owns a controlling stake in the largest Russian gold mining company Polyus, the size of which is 78.2%. During these difficult times, gold is showing its best performance in history. Every day, gold prices hit new highs thus boosting the company’s shares. From spring to the middle of the summer, one share rose to 13,920 Russian rubles from 8,384 Russian rubles. As a result, the fortune of one of the richest families also advanced. The billionaire and members of his family increased their savings to $18.6 billion compared to $10 billion earlier.

Arkady Volozh

The bronze medal comes to Arkady Volozh, the principal founder and largest individual shareholder of publicly traded search engine Yandex. The fact is that during the pandemic, Yandex began to publish news that really impressed investors. Thus, Yandex has attracted investors’ attention after the news about the so-called divorce from Sberbank. The excitement was also caused by the news about the company's possible entry into the main Russian stock exchange indicator MSCI Russia. This may occur as early as this autumn. The consequences of this infusion are obvious. Thus, the company will receive a rapid influx of funds from foreign sources that will lead to a rise in the fortune of Arkady Volozh. Notably, it has already increased by 75% due to a jump in Yandex shares to the highest level of $4,020. At the moment, the net worth of Arkady Volozh is about $2.1 billion.

Oleg Tinkov

Oleg Tinkov is another high-net-worth individual that owns 40.4% of TCS Group shares. The net profit of TCS Group continued growing despite negative forecasts and declines, which were recorded by its business colleagues. The company's success was mainly caused by an advance in its loan portfolio. Moreover, the company’s team was mostly focused on the active development of the non-financial sector rather than on expanding financial services. Users of the Tinkoff app can solve both financial and leisure issues. For example, they have access to such services as doctor's appointments, hotel and restaurant reservations, and so on. This, of course, made the company's shares even more popular, which boosted their value and, consequently, the wealth of Tinkov. Thus, his fortune increased by 63% to about $2.6 billion.

Vladimir Yevtushenko

Vladimir Yevtushenko closes the list of the billionaires that became even richer amid the pandemic. He owns the businesses of AFK Sistema (59.2%), including a controlling stake in MTS, a share in Detsky Mir, and Medsi clinic network. The growth of the corporation's shares was mainly triggered by a sharp increase in the net total income of MTS. There is no wonder as the telecommunication sector became extremely popular during the pandemic not only in Russia but also around the world. Moreover, almost 16% of the shares of Detsky Mir were sold thus bringing over 11 billion rubles to the main shareholders. As a result, Yevtushenko's fortune increased by 53% and reached $2.3 billion.