Usmanov owns 49% of USM, a Russia-based investment group that controls Metalloinvest, Russia's largest iron ore producer, and MegaFon, a Moscow-based telecommunications company. He controls Kommersant, a Russian newspaper, and has stakes in AliExpress Russia Holding and Akkermann Cement.
The majority of Usmanov's fortune is credited as Cash & Other Assets and derived from local media reports and figures provided by his press representatives. Based on Bloomberg calculations, Usmanov netted more than $7 billion from 2012 and 2014 share transactions involving Vladimir Skoch, father of his partner Andrey Skoch, and Farhad Moshiri.
Usmanov owns 49% of Metalloinvest through a holding company, according to previous disclosures on the company's website. His stake in the holding company isn't provided on the website as of December 2023 and he's credited with a 49% interest. Metalloinvest is the largest iron ore producer in Russia, according to its website.
He's also credited with a 49% stake in Megafon, a mobile phone company. Usmanov holds the shares through his 49% stake in USM, a Russia-based investment company. USM controls all of Megafon directly and through AF Telecom, according to the Megafon website.
USM investments in Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi and Didi Kuaidi taxi booking service, as well as Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart and taxi booking service Ola Cabs, aren't included in the analysis because information about the stakes is uncertain.
Usmanov was sanctioned by the European Union, the United Kingdom and the US in 2022 over the escalating conflict in Ukraine.
Alisher Usmanov was born in 1953 in Chust, Uzbekistan, then a Soviet republic in Central Asia. His father was a prosecutor in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1976 and began working in various agencies of the Uzbek government. He later produced plastic bags at a manufacturing plant outside Moscow and traded wholesale tobacco.
In 1998, after five years at a Moscow investment firm, Usmanov was appointed first deputy CEO, and then CEO, of Gazprom investholding, an asset management unit of Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer and exporter. When he led the group, Usmanov worked closely with the company's new management team, which came to power under then-President Vladimir Putin. The team restored Russia's controlling stake in the company and reclaimed the assets that had been divested by the previous management team.
Usmanov built his metals and mining empire by acquisitions. By 2005, he and his partners controlled Lebedinsky GOK, Russia's third-largest iron ore producer, and a few smelters. That year, he teamed up with businessman Vasily Anisimov and took control of Mikhailovsky GOK, Russia's second-largest iron ore producer. The assets were later consolidated into Metalloinvest, which made it the largest iron ore producer in Russia.
Outside of metals, Usmanov began consolidating a stake in MegaFon, the second-biggest mobile phone operator in Russia by subscribers, in 2007. He later raised that stake to 31 percent and, in April 2012, increased his holding to 50 percent plus one share. That allowed him to consolidate ownership and control of the company. In July 2012, he merged his controlling stake in MegaFon with Russian broadband provider Scartel, forming Garsdale. He formed USM Holdings in December 2012, consolidating his assets into a three-way structure that included Ardavan Farhad Moshiri and Andrey Skoch, who controls the shares through his father, Vladimir. He sold 12 percent of USM back to the company in August 2014.
Usmanov was also an investor in the DST group of funds. DST had a 5.5 percent stake in Facebook, as of February 2012, as well as parts of Airbnb, Spotify and Alibaba.