Sanctioned Russian Billionaires Resign From Alfa-Bank Owner
Sanctioned Russian Billionaires Resign From Alfa-Bank Owner
(Bloomberg) -- Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, two of the billionaires behind investment firm LetterOne, have resigned from the owner of one of Russia’s biggest banks in the fallout from the war in Ukraine.
Fridman, 57, and Aven, 66, stepped down as directors of Alfa-Bank parent ABH Holdings, according to a March 3 registry filing, days after the European Union imposed sanctions on the pair.
LetterOne Chairman Mervyn Davies, 69, and UniCredit SpA executive Andrea Maffezzoni, 49, resigned the following day from Luxembourg-based ABH, which is partly owned by the Italian bank and counts Fridman as its largest shareholder with a 33% stake. LetterOne shareholder Andrei Kosogov, 60, also resigned as an ABH director in a filing Monday.
A representative for Milan-based UniCredit declined to comment, while a spokesperson for ABH didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Aven, who owns 12.4% of ABH, and Ukraine-born Fridman have resigned from the board of Luxembourg-based LetterOne following the EU sanctions. The pair have called the measures “malicious” and said they plan to fight them. Fridman and Aven are worth $9.9 billion and $5.5 billion, respectively, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The EU and countries including the U.S. have also imposed sanctions on Alfa-Bank, one of Fridman’s and Aven’s largest assets. They share control of the lender with fellow Russian billionaires Kosogov, Alexei Kuzmichev and German Khan, who announced their resignations from LetterOne Monday in a statement. None of the three has been sanctioned by any nation or organization.
UniCredit received a roughly 10% stake in Alfa-Bank’s owner in exchange for ABH taking control in 2016 of the Italian lender’s Ukrainian unit. ABH had $73 billion in total assets and more than 40,000 employees at the end of 2020, filings show.
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