Bulat Utemuratov richest man in Kazakhstan – Forbes

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ASTANA. KAZINFORM - For the 29th annual guide to the globe's richest, Forbes found a record 1,826 billionaires, including 5 Kazakhstanis, with an aggregate net worth of $7.05 trillion, up from $6.4 trillion a year ago, Kazinform has learnt from AKI Press.

Despite plunging oil prices and a weakened euro, the ranks of the world's wealthiest defied global economic turmoil and expanded yet again. The total includes 290 newcomers, 71 of whom hail from China. Youth are on the rise: a record 46 among the ranks are under age 40. The average net worth of list members came in at $3.86 billion, down $60 million from 2014. 5 richest people in Kazakhstan, according to Forbes, are Bulat Utemuratov, Alijan Ibragimov, Timur Kulibaev and his wife Dinara Kulibaeva, and Vladimir Kim. Bulat Utemuratov is #714 (#796 in 2014) on 2015 Forbes Billionaires List and #1 in Kazakhstan. Private equity investor Bulat Utemuratov has been consolidating his banking assets into a new entity, ForteBank. His asset management company, Verniy Capital, which owns Ritz Carltons in Vienna and Moscow and is building Talon Towers, a $300 million complex in the Kazakh capital of Astana, continues to expand its real estate portfolio with a new Ritz in Astana planned for 2017. Utemuratov made his first windfall in 2007 when he sold his ATF Bank to Italian bank UniCredit for $2.1 billion. In 2013 he sold his mining assets to Glencore Xstrata and the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund. An avid tennis player, he heads the Kazakh Tennis Federation. Alijan Ibragimov is #847 (#1046 in 2014) on 2015 Forbes Billionaires List and #2 in Kazakhstan. With partners and longtime friends, billionaires Alexander Machkevich and Patokh Chodiev, Alijan Ibragimov is trying to revive the fortunes of Eurasian Natural Resources Co., a metals and mining empire in Kazakhstan which they delisted in 2013 after a market downturn stalled growth and fraud investigations mounted. The firm is up against another challenge: a $220 million lawsuit over allegations it failed to pay the final installment for a Brazilian iron ore mine to Zamin, owned by bilionare Laskhmi Mittal's right hand man, Pramod Agarwal. ENRC has submitted a counter-claim. A native of Uzbekistan, Ibragimov moved to Kazakhstan when the group decided to pursue business interests there. A devout Muslim, he has six sons. Timur Kulibaev is #894 (#988 in 2014) on 2015 Forbes Billionaires List and #3 in Kazakhstan. Son-in-law of Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbaev, Timur Kulibaev sold his Altynalmas Gold to Polymetal, part-owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Nesis, for cash and company shares in a deal that could be worth more than $1 billion in several years. With wife Dinara, he also owns a stake in Halyk Bank and is a key player in Kazakhstan's oil and gas sector. He is president of the Kazakhstan Boxing Federation and chairman of the executive committee of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs. Dinara Kulibaeva is #894 (#988 in 2014) on 2015 Forbes Billionaires List and #3 in Kazakhstan. Daughter of Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev, Dinara Kulibaeva jointly owns bank, gold, and oil service assets with her husband, billionaire Timur Kulibaev, who sold his Altynalmas Gold to Polymetal, part-owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Nesis, for cash and company shares in a deal that could be worth more than $1 billion in several years. A graduate of the Institute of Theater Arts in Moscow, Kulibaeva is head of the president's education foundation which provides support to students who need aid. Vladimir Kim is #1054 (#1078 in 2014) on 2015 Forbes Billionaires List and #5 in Kazakhstan. Copper magnate Vladimir Kim remains majority shareholder of a renamed and slimmed down KAZ Minerals (formerly Kazakhmys). He helped orchestrate a restructuring of the flagging copper miner by buying its loss-making mines. The deal was approved in August 2014 and executed at the end of October 2014. He holds his more mature assets under Cuprum Holding; these assets retain the name Kazakhmys. He joined Kazakhmys during Khazakstan's early 1990s privatization wave. He is a descendent of Koreans forced by Stalin to move to Kazakhstan.

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