Roman Abramovich Success Story: From Poor Orphan to Billionaire
Roman Abramovich is a Russian politician and oligarch. He is the main shareholder of the private investment firm Millhouse LLC and the previous owner of Chelsea, a Premier League football team in London, England.
He holds citizenship in Russia, Israel, and Portugal. Forbes estimates that Abramovich’s net worth was $14.5 billion in 2021, making him the richest person in Portugal, the second-richest person in Israel, and the eleventh-richest person in Russia.
In the years that followed the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, Abramovich amassed wealth by purchasing state-owned Russian assets at rates much below market value under Russia’s contentious loans-for-shares privatization program.
Early Life
Roman Abramovich lost both his parents by the age of three and was raised by his relatives in Russia. While attending a technical college in Ukhta, he made his first foray into business by reselling worn tires and vehicle components out of his flat to supplement his income.
He continued his education at the Gubkin Institute of Oil and Gas in Moscow before starting his service in the army in 1974. While he was serving in the army, he realized that the military wasn’t the field for him. He used his business savvy to sell fuel to troops as a side business.
He was able to start saving money as a result, and his first company was the Comfort Co-op, which sold imported plastic toys. Roman Abramovich owned this children’s toy manufacturing company during the Perestroika era in Russia when economic liberalization permitted small enterprises. He used the profits from the toy company to open his first oil company in the Omsk region.
Success Story
He grew close to businessman Boris Berezovsky, and this helped Abramovich get opportunities. Abramovich was welcomed to significant meetups and dinners because Berezovsky had close ties to the former president, Boris Yeltsin. He started various diverse businesses after branching out, including pig farms, bodyguard hiring, sugar, lumber, and culinary goods.
Even in a nation where it wasn’t simple to become wealthy, he was able to establish a successful career as an entrepreneur. Abramovich had some difficult moments before being one of the world’s richest people, so it wasn’t all smooth sailing for him.
In particular, his Swiss-based trading company, Runicom, failed in 2003, and he allegedly had to repay a debt to the bank. Roman Abramovich was well on his way to becoming the first billionaire when the Soviet Union’s industrial assets were divided. He had acquired Sibneft, a sizable oil corporation, as a result of Russia’s contentious loans-for-shares program.
Sibneft was privatized by President Yeltsin, and Abramovich and Berezovsky were able to acquire the company for just $100 million, which was far less than its $600 million market value. This served as the basis for his enormous wealth, which he later realized after selling his Sibneft stake for over £1.8 billion.
By acquiring Chelsea Football Club in 2003, he enlarged his economic empire. He then launched a massive program of commercial development intending to turn Chelsea into a global brand, similar to the football empires like Real Madrid and Manchester United. The club has captured 18 major titles since he came over.
To continue assisting the people of Chukotka, he established a nonprofit organization called the Pole of Hope. In 2019, he personally gave $5 million to the Jewish Agency for Israel to fight anti-Semitism around the world.
I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.
