Akhmetov comes back with fortune of nearly $6 bln - Bloomberg
His wealth has tumbled from a high of $22 billion in 2013 to about $4 billion in 2015, but now it has reached nearly $6 billion, Bloomberg reports.
The report notes that yet Akhmetov continues to be Ukraine's richest man. He owns System Capital Management, the country's largest industrial conglomerate, whose most valuable assets are steel company Metinvest, and DTEK, a coal and energy business.
Both had enterprises in Luhansk and Donetsk regions, where an uprising of pro-Russian rebels occurred after mass protests in early 2014. Akhmetov was forced to move from his native Donetsk to Kyiv and his wealth slid from a high of $22.4 billion in January 2013.
"In early 2017, Metinvest and DTEK assets in Luhansk and Donetsk were nationalized by pro-Russian rebels after Ukraine's military veterans started a transport blockade of its rebel-held eastern regions," reads the article.
Bloomberg notes that Akhmetov stayed afloat and Metinvest reported stronger first half 2018 financial results compared with the same period in 2017.
DTEK's coal production decreased 12.9% during the same period. However, efforts to convert some of its power units from anthracite - unavailable in Ukraine since the transport blockade - to hard coal are showing results and allowing the holding to decrease its coal import needs.
Akhmetov is now 276th in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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