Monday, March 21 2016 16:50

ArmInfo. Forbes has publicized the 30th global rating of dollar billionaires.

According to Forbes, the wealthiest Armenian on the list of billionaires is Russian businessman Samvel Karapetyan (ranked 549th). "Samvel Karapetyan heads the Tashir Group, a real estate firm that owns 33 shopping centers, 4 office complexes, and 8 hotels across Russia. In 2015 the group collected $610 million in revenue from leased space.  Karapetyan made big acquisitions during the financial crisis and continues to buy property.  Born in Armenia, he moved to Kaluga, near Moscow, in the 1990s. His companies operate in 25 regions of Russia, but recently he has focused on launching new projects in the Moscow area, with plans to invest $800 million to build 4.3 million square feet of residential, retail and office space. In 2014, one of Tashir's shopping and entertainment centers opened a space that houses more than 400 birds, reptiles and other animals. Karapetyan's older brother, Karen, is a well-known Armenian politician and served as a top official in Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's administration. In 2015, Tashir bought 36,000 kilometers of power grids in Karapetyan's home country from Inter RAO Armenian Electric Grids," Forbes says.

Eduardo Eurnekian is ranked 810th with 2.2 bln USD. "The son of Armenian immigrants, first delved into the textiles industry, and then the cable TV business in the 1980s. He added to his media portfolio, buying radio stations, newspapers, and a TV channel. In the 1990s, he offloaded all of his media holdings, netting $750 million with the sale of Cablevision, as a wave of privatization brought capital into Argentina. In the late 1990s, he led a consortium that secured a 30-year concession to build and operate Argentina's airports.  Today, he and partners have a portfolio of more than 50 airports in multiple countries with annual revenues of approximately $2 billion, including the first privately operated airports in Brazil. After Argentina's economic crash in 2001, he bought assets through his Corporacion America, a holding company that owns more than 260,000 acres of land dedicated to crops, cattle and vineyards. It also owns an infrastructure development company, a chip factory called Unitech Blue, a biodiesel production facility, and land in Armenia used for fruit production and wine. Eurnekian has been investing in oil and gas in Argentina. In 2011, he sold 21 duty free shops in Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Martinique and Armenia to Switzerland's Dufry AG for $957 million. He has never married and has no children. Martin and Hugo Eurnekian, sons of his deceased brother Alberto, work with him. Martin is the president of Puerta del Sol, the company that manages the group's airport business in Uruguay. Hugo leads the biggest challenge that Corporacion America has taken on: the construction of a tunnel passing through the Andes called Bioceanico Aconcagua, in which it plans to invest more than $3 billion," the source says.

Danil Khachaturov, one more billionaire of Armenian descent, is ranked the 1275th with $1.46 bln. "He studied construction and finance at Moscow schools and went to work at privately held BIN Bank and then at Slavneft, an oil company led at the time by billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev. Between 2001 and 2003, he and his partners spent $60 million buying 75% of then-insolvent Rosgosstrakh from the government. In 2010, they bought the remaining 25%. The only retail insurance company in the Soviet Union, Rosgosstrakh is still Russia's largest insurance company, with $2.4 billion in revenue. In May 2015, the Bank of Russia suspended the insurer's license for 13 days after receiving 2,300 complaints from clients," Forbes says.

To note, this time the Forbes list includes 1,810 people (16 fewer than a year before) with a total of $6.48 trillion ($570 bln less than a year before). The list is getting younger and younger - as many as 67 participants are below 40. The assets owned by the billionaires were estimated as of 13 Feb 2016.