Kiev. Ukraine. Ukraine Gate – December 30, 2020 – Business
Last year fortune oligarch Viktor Pinchuk grew by 5% – to $ 2.415 billion. He retained the second place in the rating of top 100 richest Ukrainian.
The corona crisis did not prevent Viktor Pinchuk from becoming a little richer. Although its wealth growth of 5% does not look solid, against the background of an annual economic decline of about 5.5%, this result is a serious success.
Unlike Rinat Akhmetov’s Metinvest, Pinchuk’s metallurgical asset Interpipe produces products with higher added value – pipes and wheels for the railway sector. The company reported $ 115.5 million in profit for the six months of 2020.
Neither in the EU, nor in the USA, nor in the Middle East, the demand for wheelsets produced by Interpipe has not decreased, as railway logistics in these markets continued to work even in the most difficult moments of the global lockdown.
For more than a year now, Interpipe has been selling products for the needs of the state-owned Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ). This year, Pinchuk’s deliveries of rough axles used in the production of cars have been added to the wheelsets. And since UZ’s business already surpassed last year’s figures in August, Interpipe also made money.
In addition, Pinchuk’s debts are in order. Its ” pipe” asset not only got out of the credit hole of previous years, but also successfully repays the debt of Eurobonds for years to come. Thus, for 2024 Eurobonds, Interpipe has already returned $ 32.4 million to creditors, taking advantage of the fact that these securities have fallen in price amid the crisis.
Pinchuk also avoided spending on his public activities. Yes, the annual YES conference, which usually gathers hundreds of visiting guests and provides them with generous fees, did not take place in 2020.
However, what the billionaire saved on YES, he gave to Vladimir Zelensky. Responding to the president’s request to support the country’s fight against the coronavirus epidemic, Pinchuk allocated $ 10 million for these purposes as of May.
Things are not so easy for a businessman in the media market. As of the end of August, Ukrainians, according to research company Big Data, spent 18% less time watching TV, returning to pre-quarantine viewing rates, increasingly preferring the Internet. And although Pinchuk’s flagship media business, ICTV, has become the first most popular button among audiences between the ages of 18 and 54, he continues to be in third place among 18+ audiences, after Ukraine and 1 + 1.
Pinchuk’s personal life:
Victor Mykhailovych Pinchuk (Ukrainian: Віктор Миха́йлович Пінчýк, Viktor Mykhailovych Pinchuk; born 14 December 1960) is a Ukrainian businessman and oligarch. As of January 2016, Forbes ranked him as 1,250th on the list of wealthiest people in the world, with a fortune of US$1.44 billion.
Pinchuk is the founder of EastOne Group LLC, an international investing, project funding and financial advisory company based in London, and of Interpipe Group, one of Ukraine’s leading pipe, wheel and steel producers. Pinchuk is the owner of four TV channels and a popular tabloid, Fakty i Kommentarii. He has been a member of the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, for two consecutive terms from 1998 to 2006. He is married to Olena Pinchuk, the daughter of former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma.
Victor Pinchuk is married to Olena Pinchuk, the daughter of the second president of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma. Olena Pinchuk runs the ANTIAIDS Foundation, which focuses on prevention and retroviral distribution and AIDS care in Ukraine. She and Pinchuk are friends of singer Elton John and former US President Bill Clinton, whose 65th birthday party Pinchuk attended in Los Angeles. Victor Pinchuk has three daughters and a son.
Pinchuk spent more than $6 million on his 50th birthday party in Courchevel, flying in Cirque du Soleil and chef Alain Ducasse.
