Business success story of Elena Baturina: how a girl from a working-class family created a billion-dollar business. Elena Luzhkova: the daughter of hereditary patriots Baturina earns more than her husband thanks to her husband
By the way, Baturina’s first hotel was the Grand Tyrolia Hotel, built in 2009 in Kitzbühel, Austria and costing about 40 million euros. It is in Kitzbühel that Elena Nikolaevna’s headquarters is located. In total, by the end of 2015, it intends to own 14 hotels on the continent.
The Grand Tirolia Hotel hosts the traditional Laureus Award ceremony every 12 months. She is often called the “Oscar” of international sports journalism.
"Emigrant" Luzhkov
Yuri Mikhailovich himself, when meeting with journalists, regularly complains that he has been molded into some kind of reclusive emigrant: they say, he does not appear either in Moscow or even in Russia. How he supports himself and his family is unknown. In fact, the recent leader of the capital lives, works and, on principle, does not engage in any political activity in three at once - in England, where his daughters study, in Austria, where the main office of the Luzhkov-Baturina family is located, and in Russia. And not only in Moscow, but also in the Kaliningrad region.There, the former mayor and his wife, who once headed the country’s equestrian federation, created a real livestock complex on the basis of a German stud farm that collapsed in the 90s and breed sports horses. They also raise “Romanov” sheep, famous for their selected wool. During the Great Patriotic War, very warm and durable soldiers' sheepskin coats were made from this wool.
That is, Yuri Mikhailovich’s wife is only investing in her husband’s project, which is still far from profitable. But Luzhkov himself not only organizes and controls a very complex agricultural process on five thousand hectares and with the participation of one hundred people, but also takes an active part in it - at the helm of a German combine. And is very proud to have been included as a foreign member of the English Sheep Breeders' Union.
Daughters: from Moscow State University to UCL
In Russia, Elena and Olga Luzhkov studied at the most prestigious metropolitan gymnasiums and language schools. So, after their father’s disgrace, they clearly had no problems with a quick transfer from Moscow State University to UCL, University College London, and later admission to the university.Elena Luzhkova started her own business in parallel with her studies. In the Slovak capital Bratislava, she created a company called Alener, which deals with perfumes and cosmetics.
However, according to Luzhkov Sr., he does not intend to control the life and studies of his daughters. He also understands the sad fact that his wife is forced to often visit and even live in London, and not next to him.
Elena Nikolaevna Baturina. Born on March 8, 1963 in Moscow. Russian entrepreneur, philanthropist, philanthropist. President of Inteco Management. One of the richest women in Russia. Wife of Yuri Luzhkov.
Father - Nikolai Baturin, was a foreman at the Frezer plant.
Mother worked at the machine, also at the Frazer plant.
The elder brother is a businessman. In 2007, he sued his sister's company for $120 million for wrongful termination, but lost the case and they signed a settlement agreement. Since then, Baturina has not maintained contact with her brother. In July 2013, Viktor Baturin was convicted of bill fraud, committed as part of his attempts to obtain additional money from his sister, in addition to that provided for in the settlement agreement, and non-residential premises. The court sentenced him to 7 years in prison.
In 1980, Elena graduated from school, then worked for a year and a half at the Frezer plant as a design technician in the department that dealt with technology.
In 1986 she graduated from the Moscow Institute of Management named after Sergo Ordzhonikidze.
She worked at the Institute of Economic Problems of Integrated Development of Moscow.
With the beginning of perestroika and the cooperative movement, she became the head of the secretariat of the All-Russian Union of United Cooperatives. From this organization she was delegated to the Moscow City Executive Committee commission on cooperative activities, where she held the position of chief specialist.
Since 1989, she began to engage in entrepreneurial activities, creating a cooperative together with her brother Viktor Baturin.
In 1991, Elena starred in a cameo in the crime film “Genius” in the title role.
Elena Baturina in the film "Genius"
On June 5, 1991, the Krasnopresnensky District Executive Committee of Moscow registered the Charter owned by Baturina LLP "Inteko", specializing in the manufacture of various types of plastic products. Subsequently, for individual types, the share of this company’s products accounted for up to a quarter of the Russian market. In the 1990s, the Inteko company, expanding its capacity, entered the construction business in the capital and other regions of the country. During the crisis of 2008-2009, Inteko entered the list of 300 systemically important enterprises of the Russian Federation that can count on government support.
Since 1994, Inteko began to engage in petrochemistry - plastic processing and production of plastic products. In 1998, the company won a large tender for the supply of 80 thousand plastic seats for the Luzhniki Stadium in an open competition. Until 2000, the main business was the production of plastics and plastic products.
In the mid-1990s, Inteko entered the construction business, developing the following areas: the development of modern finishing materials and technologies for facade work, cement production, panel and monolithic housing construction, architectural design and real estate business.
In 2001, Inteko CJSC acquired from a private person a controlling stake in one of the leading house-building plants in Moscow, OJSC House-Building Plant No. 3. In June 2005, OJSC House-Building Plant No. 3 was sold.
In the early 2000s, Baturina acquired the highly profitable blue chips of the largest Russian corporations Gazprom and Sberbank. This far-sighted step allowed the entrepreneur to sell these shares at a significant profit during the crisis year of 2009 and, due to this, repay the loans taken earlier to the banks for business development ahead of schedule and keep her business afloat.
At the end of 2008, along with Gazprom, Russian Railways OJSC and other large companies, Inteko was included in the list of 295 systemically important enterprises.
In 2009, Inteko CJSC acquired a 60% stake in Moscow Engineering Company CJSC, specializing in the field of engineering construction. Also in 2009, the company began cooperation with the outstanding Spanish architect Ricardo Bofil as part of a program to create fundamentally new prefabricated housing construction systems in Russia for the purpose of comprehensive development of territories for the purpose of mass housing construction.
In 2010, JSC Inteko began construction of the second academic building of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University.
In 2010, Elena Baturina turned out to be one of the largest taxpayers in Russia, having paid taxes for 2009 in the amount of 4 billion rubles to the state budget.
At the end of 2010, Baturina sold her Russian Land Bank (RZB) to foreign investors.
The most significant completed Inteko projects in Moscow during the period the company was owned by Elena Baturina are: the Shuvalovsky residential block (270 thousand square meters), the Grand Park residential block (400 thousand square meters), the Volzhsky residential microdistrict (400 thousand square meters), the multifunctional complex "Fusion Park" with the museum of unique cars from private collections "Autoville" (100 thousand m²), the Fundamental Library (60 thousand m²), as well as the educational building of the humanities faculties (100 thousand m²) of the Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov, invested and built by Inteko.
Inteko sponsored the Russian Open Golf Championship, one of the stages of the European PGA Tour, and also provided support to representatives of the Russian junior team during their participation in foreign competitions. In addition, Elena Baturina supported charity golf tournaments for the Russian President's Cup in Russia, as well as the Rottary Golf World Championship in Kitzbühel (Austria).
At the beginning of September 2011, the sale of the Inteko investment business was announced. Since 2011, Inteko has been part of the SAFMAR Group, owned by the Gutseriev-Shishkhanov family.
Having sold Inteko, in 2011 Elena Baturina moved her business abroad. The head of the company Inteco Management.
After the resignation of Yuri Luzhkov from the post of mayor of Moscow, Elena Baturina settled outside the Russian Federation and began actively investing in the hotel business. The first object of the future hotel chain was the five-star Grand Tirolia hotel in Kitzbühel, Austria, whose construction was completed in 2009. Investments in construction amounted, according to various estimates, to €35-40 million. The hotel is located in the center of the Eichenheim golf club, together they make up the Grand Tirolia Golf & Ski Resort. Since 2009, the hotel complex has received the honorary status of the first “House of Laureus” in Austria, and has now become the site of the annual ceremony of presenting the prestigious international Laureus World Sports Awards, called by experts the “Oscars” of sports journalism.
In 2010, the New Peterhof hotel complex opened in St. Petersburg. The hotel received a number of architectural awards: “Grand Prix” of the architectural review-competition “Architecton-2010” in the category “Buildings”, “Golden Diploma” of the Green Awards competition in the category “Hotel Real Estate” and “Golden Diploma” of the International Architectural Festival “Zodchestvo- 2010" in the category "Buildings".
One of Elena Baturina’s business areas in the USA is investing in investment development funds engaged in the construction of residential and commercial real estate in the UK and the USA. Baturina’s representative office in the USA opened at the end of 2015. It provides support and control over investments made in the country.
In November 2016, a transaction was completed for the acquisition of a land plot by Baturina’s structures in Limassol, Cyprus. The site is located directly on the coast and is intended for the construction of a complex of luxury residential real estate.
In 2015, Elena Baturina acquired a majority stake in the German company Hightex GmbH, specializing in membrane construction. In April 2017, Hightex announced the launch of two international projects - in Qatar and the USA. In Qatar, Hightex will construct the membrane roof and facades for the Al Bayt Stadium. The stadium, designed to seat 60,000 spectators, will be one of the venues for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In the USA, Hightex is implementing a project to install membrane elements at the construction of the “Canopy of Peace” facility, 50 meters high.
Condition of Elena Baturina
In 2010, Forbes magazine recognized Baturina as the third richest woman in the world with a fortune of $2.9 billion. In 2011, she moved to 77th place in the list of the richest businessmen in Russia with a fortune of $1.2 billion, while remaining the richest entrepreneur in the country. In 2012 - 86th place in the list of the richest businessmen in Russia with a fortune of $1.1 billion.
In 2013, she took 98th place with a fortune of $1.1 billion. In 2013, the Sunday Times newspaper included Elena Baturina in the Sunday Times Rich List - a list of the richest people in Great Britain. The Russian entrepreneur took 122nd place in the general list and 12th place in the list of the wealthiest women. Since then, Elena Baturina appears on the list every year and is the leader among women in the country who earned their fortune on their own.
At the end of 2015, Elena Baturina’s net worth was $1 billion.
In 2017, her fortune amounted to $1 billion - 1940th place in the world ranking, 90th in Russia.
Baturina's fortune was estimated at $1.2 billion.
Social activities of Elena Baturina
Since 2006, she served as deputy head of the interdepartmental group for the national project “Affordable and comfortable housing for Russian citizens.” Elena Baturina was the only representative of the construction business in this group. In connection with the work on the national project, a special unit was created at Inteko, whose employees traveled to the regions of Russia, inspecting on-site the condition of construction industry enterprises, determining the need for building materials, and collecting demographic and sociological data. As a result, the concept of the Federal Target Program “Development of the Construction Industry and Construction Materials Industry” was developed, on the basis of which the Government of the Russian Federation developed “Strategy for the development of the building materials industry for the period until 2020”.
In 2010, the president of the company, Elena Baturina, became one of the first representatives of large business to independently provide assistance to victims of fires - in particular, Inteko built a preschool institution in the Tula region free of charge.
In 2015, Baturina became one of the international ambassadors of the public program WE-Women for EXPO, organized jointly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy. We-Women for EXPO is an international public project within the framework of the World Exhibition, created to find solutions to the most pressing issues raised at EXPO 2015. The project brings together outstanding women from all over the world: Nobel laureates, politicians, cultural, scientific and sports figures, philanthropists and entrepreneurs. The status of international ambassador was awarded to Elena Baturina for her contribution to promoting an innovative approach to solving social issues.
In 1999-2005, Elena Baturina served as President of the Russian Equestrian Federation. During this time, the organization of international dressage and eventing competitions for boys and juniors began; teams of riders of the appropriate age categories qualified to participate in the European Championships were formed. Many competitions were held in Moscow, including the Moscow Mayor's Cup, which was one of the stages of the Cup. After a ten-year break, the Russian Championship, the Russian Cup and the Russian Championship among youth and juniors in eventing were held.
Supports culture and art. First "Russian Seasons" Elena Baturina organized in Kitzbühel, Austria, in 2008, a Russian Christmas celebration with the participation of Russian classical music performers and Russian folk song and dance groups. The next stages of the “Russian Seasons” were held for several years not only in Austria, but also in a number of other European countries.
Sponsored the International Music Festival "Jazza Nova" in Kitzbühel. Over the years, its headliners included world music legends Stevie Wonder and Carlos Santana, and participants included Liquid Soul and Brazzaville, the Turetsky Choir, and Sergei Zhilin. Attendance at the festival was free, and invitations were distributed through public funds.
Elena Baturina is the founder of the charitable Education Support Fund (FPO) "NOOSPHERE", whose activities are aimed at developing religious tolerance in society and provide for the creation of a system of educational courses, information and leisure centers, grants and scholarship programs. The NOOSPHERE Foundation is the initiator and one of the organizers of the educational festival “Team Tolerance”. The Noosphere Foundation is currently implementing an educational astronomy project in London with the support of the Mayor of London Foundation.
Elena Baturina initiated a charity project “Revival of the Russian tradition of collective assistance in building a house” (“House with the whole world”). This project was designed to unite the efforts of commercial organizations, individuals and authorities in various regions of Russia to solve the housing problems of people in dire need of improving their living conditions. As part of the “Home for the Whole World” project, Inteko donated apartments to families in Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and St. Petersburg.
Established BE OPEN humanitarian foundation- a creative think tank / “think tank” whose mission is to promote ideas and personalities. This is a cultural and humanitarian initiative that aims to gather the energy of the global creative elite - the best minds from the fields of art, education, design, business - and direct it towards the positive transformation of society. The development and realization of the creative potential of young people is carried out through an extensive system of interrelated events: conferences, competitions, exhibitions, master classes, events in the field of culture and art.
Elena Baturina's height: 172 centimeters.
Personal life of Elena Baturina:
Married. Spouse - (born September 21, 1936), Soviet and Russian statesman and politician, served as mayor of Moscow for 18 years in 1992-2010.
Luzhkov and Baturina met when they both worked in the Moscow City Executive Committee, Elena - in the commission on cooperative activities. They got married in 1991. Then Elena Baturina was 28 years old, and Luzhkov was 55. Baturina said: “When we worked together, we didn’t even think about it, everything happened a little later. Luzhkov is a real man in the best sense of the word. And we are very lucky - we love each other. We are a completely traditional family."
In their marriage, they had two daughters - Elena (born in 1992) and Olga (born in 1994).
Before the resignation of Yuri Luzhkov, the daughters studied at Moscow State University. Later they moved to London, where they studied politics and economics at University College London.
Baturina explained her move to London with a desire to be close to her daughters: “Life just so happens that I now have to live in England, my children study there and I, of course, will always be tied to the place where they are. They will want tomorrow "To live in Japan, I will go to Japan with them. Because these are my children - and they are more important to me than any business."
Daughter Elena does business in Slovakia and founded the company Alener in Bratislava, whose main activity is the development of cosmetics and perfumes.
Daughter Olga entered the Faculty of Economics at Moscow State University in 2010, then studied for two years at University College London. Then she graduated with a bachelor's degree from New York University and then studied for a master's degree in hotel management and food sciences. At the end of 2015, Olga opened the Herbarium bar next to the Grand Tirolia hotel in Kitzbühel, owned by Elena Baturina.
In January 2016, Baturina and Luzhkov got married after 25 years of marriage. The wedding took place in the house church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, located on the site of Yuri Luzhkov's country house, it was conducted by the rector of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Archbishop Feognost - the former mayor of Moscow maintains friendly relations with him. The ceremony was attended by the couple's children and relatives, as well as close friends.
Elena Baturina is passionate about horses. Baturina began to be interested in equestrian sports after Svyatoslav Fedorov gave her a horse for her birthday. At her personal stable, Baturina keeps disabled horses and provides them with a decent existence.
According to Baturina, how a person sits on a horse, how he negotiates with it - this is how he builds relationships with people: “You must definitely put a person on a horse in order to see how he will behave in a team: will he become a leader or not, will he be a dictator or he will compromise. In general, horses are easier for men. They have a strong hand, and stopping the animal is not difficult. Luzhkov can handle any horse."
Also loves alpine skiing. He prefers to go skiing in Tyrol, Austria. It was this passion that became the reason that the first property of Baturina’s hotel chain, the Grand Tirolia Hotel, was built in Tyrol.
In addition, Elena Baturina is fond of golf, which she plays with her husband and collects photographs from the countries she visits.
Collects Russian porcelain. Elena Baturina owns one of the largest private collections of Russian imperial porcelain. She gives preference to porcelain from the time of Nicholas the First.
In April 2011, Elena Baturina donated about 40 works of art to the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve in Moscow - part of her collection of rare porcelain. The exhibition was dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812.
Filmography of Elena Baturina:
Elena Baturina is the wife of former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, the former owner of the Inteko holding, which controlled a significant part of the construction market in the Russian capital, and is a shareholder of Sberbank and Gazprom.
Elena Nikolaevna Baturina
Childhood and youth of Elena Nikolaevna Baturina
Elena Baturina was born on March 8, 1963 in Moscow. Both of Elena's parents worked at the factory "Frizer". Mom worked at the machine, father was a foreman.
As a child, Elena had lung problems. This provoked such a dislike for smoking. At a conscious age, she was fond of horse riding and tennis, went in for skiing, and also received a third category in shooting with a small-caliber rifle.
Elena Baturina in her youth
The older brother is an entrepreneur. Elena and her brother graduated from the same school. The girl received her higher education in the evening department "Institute of Management named after Sergo Ordzhonikidze". Along with her studies, in 1980-1982, Elena worked at a cutting tools company "Frizer", where her parents worked. In 1982-1989, she worked as the head of the secretarial department of the Union of Cooperators, a member of the commission of the Moscow City Executive Committee in cooperative activities at the Institute of Economic Problems of the Development of the National Economy of the capital. She received higher education in 1986 and three years later began her entrepreneurial activity.
Elena Baturina and her brother Victor started a business together
Baturina's business
Elena started her career in 1980 at the post of design technician. and just two years later, in 1982, when she was about to leave the plant, she worked in the department of the chief technologist as a senior design engineer.
The period from 1982 to 1989 can be called the next step on the career ladder. Elena got a job as a research assistant at "Institute of Economic Problems of Integrated Development of Moscow", there she was able to transform scientific work into chairmanship of the Union of United Cooperatives, where she later became a leading specialist.
The main year that changed Baturina’s biography was 1989 At this time, Elena started doing business.
Elena Baturina has repeatedly topped the ranking of the richest women in Russia
The creation of a family cooperative with his brother Victor marked the beginning of a successful business. To develop the business, computer equipment was purchased, software was created and installed, and modern technologies were gradually introduced.
In 1991 Elena and her brother officially registered a company engaged in the production of polymer products. In the same year, Baturina became engaged to, who became the mayor of Moscow a year later.
In early September 2011 announced the sale of investment business "Inteko": the buyer of 95% of the company was to be the entrepreneur’s structures, and another 5% - a subsidiary of Sberbank Investments.
After Luzhkov left the post of mayor, Elena moved to London and began to engage in the hotel business there. After London, Baturina moved with her children and husband to Austria. In Auraha they lived next door to representatives of the Swarovski family.
In the late 2000s the company "Inteko" became a sponsor of the Triathlon World Cup and Rotary Club conventions. With the support of Elena Baturina, a festival took place in the Alpine city "Jazznova".
Elena Baturina is the owner of a real estate company Safo GmbH in Vienna, where a businesswoman bought another mansion in the elite Döbling district, but Elena Baturina did not renounce Russian citizenship.
In 2012 famous entrepreneur Elena Baturina founded and headed a charitable foundation "BE OPEN".
Elena Baturina
Inteko
Year of birth "Inteko"- 1991, founded as an enterprise for the manufacture of polymer products. Baturina's cooperative often received orders at the city level; after expanding her business, Baturina took over the Moscow Oil Refinery, which was on the account of the Moscow Prefecture.
In 1994 A plastics manufacturing plant was attached to Inteko; in the mid-90s, the company's products occupied a quarter of the Russian market. In 1999, Inteko was involved in a scandal involving embezzlement of public funds. At that time, the company was considered the general contractor in the construction of a new city in Kalmykia. From Kalmykia Elena Baturina tried to go to State Duma deputies, but this attempt was unsuccessful.
Business lady Elena Baturina
In the early 2000s Inteko creates the appearance of an investment and construction corporation, after which the purchase of cement plants began. As a result, the company has become one of the leading cement suppliers in Russia. At the same time, the company invested in the largest state-owned enterprises, including Sberbank, etc. It also sponsored the largest social projects in the fields of medicine, sports, culture and art.
Since 2005 The process of Inteko's disintegration began. First, the company stopped communicating with the concrete panel construction market, and already in 2006, Viktor Baturin left the company, followed by Elena herself. However, she became a co-founder of the company, as she was elected to the board of directors of the financial enterprise " Russian Land Bank". From 2006 to 2011, the Inteko company carried out many projects for the construction of modern residential complexes Dominion, Arco di Sole, Champion Park and ASTRA, and the construction of the university building was completed. M.V. Lomonosov, “New Peterhof” was opened.
Entrepreneur Elena Baturina
In 2008 Inteko was included in the list of 300 systemically important enterprises in the country.
In 2011 the sale of Inteko to investors was announced, and at the same time Elena Baturina was selling the Russian Land Bank, which at that time belonged to her.
Charity Baturina
Since 2012 Elena Baturina heads the charity foundation "BE OPEN". This project is dedicated to youth, it allows young geniuses to realize their ideas and plans in the field of fine arts, literature, music, architecture, design and science.
Elena Baturina - head of the charity foundation "BE OPEN"
Conflicts and criticism of Baturina
December 1, 2006 information spread about the refusal of the publishing house Axel Springer Russia print materials about Elena Baturina and her business, while destroying the entire circulation of the Russian Forbes magazine, which was supposed to be published in December.
American demanded that the publisher release the December issue in its original form, as it had already been printed. The requirements were met. In February 2007, Inteko filed two lawsuits against the publishing house and the editor-in-chief. Each claim was for 106 thousand 500 rubles. In the spring of 2007, the company won the first lawsuit, and lost the second in the fall of the same year. After changing the subject of the second claim, Inteko won the case against the author of the article and Axel Springer Russia.
Elena Baturina is one of the richest women in Russia
Early 2007 A dispute broke out between Elena and her brother. The essence of the conflict was that Victor wanted to regain part of the shares in the Inteko company (the stake at that time was worth about a billion dollars). The court rejected the first claims from Victor, but the claims filed in response by Elena Baturina were registered on February 15, 2007. After an exchange of lawsuits, the media reported that both sides of the conflict renounced “mutual property and other claims.”
In the 2000s, many representatives of Russian business, including, reported in the media that the Inteko company receives lucrative orders from the Moscow government only because of the presence of family ties between Luzhkov and Baturina, but this was refuted by both Elena and her spouse.
Elena Baturina
In December 2009 newspaper of the year "Vedomosti" announced that in the summer of 2009, when development companies were struggling with serious difficulties arising from the economic crisis, Elena Baturina’s corporation successfully repaid bank loans in the amount of 27 billion rubles. One of the ways to pay off debts was the sale of a plot of land with a total area of 58 hectares in the south-west of Moscow for 13 billion rubles per 1 hectare (according to Vedomosti, this price was even before the crisis and was approximately twice as high as the current price at that time). According to the newspaper, the purchase was paid for using a bank loan. The most significant shareholder of the Bank of Moscow at that time was The government of Moscow.
Personal life of Elena Baturina
In 1991 Elena married Yuri Luzhkov. They got married secretly in 2016. They have been married for more than 25 years.
Yuri Luzhkov and Elena Baturina
Elena and Yuri had two daughters, the first Elena was born in 1992. A couple of years later, the youngest daughter was born Olga. The girls began to receive higher education at Moscow State University, but due to the dismissal of their father, they were forced to move with their family to London, but they did not give up their education and continued to study in Britain, on the basis of the university college.
Elena Baturina with her daughters
Youngest daughter - Olga continued her studies at a university in New York. There she defended her bachelor's degree and then her master's degree in hotel management. Near her mother’s hotel complex, the five-star Grand Tirolia hotel in the mountains of Austria, in Kitzbühel, the girl implemented her first project - opened her own bar Herbarium. The place may be of interest because the standard menu and cocktails are supplemented with herbal infusions and cocktails.
Elena Baturina with her daughters
Eldest daughter - Elena, moved to Slovakia, where she lives and works. There the girl opened a small company producing perfumes and cosmetics Alener. Since 2018, Elena officially received citizenship in Cyprus, where her mother began building a new residential complex.
In 1986 she graduated from the evening department of the State University of Management.
In terms of wealth, only two businesswomen surpassed her - a Chinese woman and the creator of the Zara empire
Elena Baturina became the third of the 14 richest women in the world
OlgaThe wife of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and President "" was included in the top three richest women in the world according to the American magazine Forbes. Baturina's fortune is estimated at $2.9 billion.
Only 14 women in the world have a personal fortune of more than $1 billion, according to the American magazine Forbes. This is only 2% of all billionaires in the world (1011 people) who earned their wealth themselves and did not inherit it. 7 of these 14 richest women are Chinese, who managed to get rich amid the enormous growth of the Chinese economy.
The richest businesswoman turned out to be a resident of China, Wu Yahun, who earned her $3.9 billion mainly in the real estate business. In second place among female billionaires is the co-founder of the Zara empire, Rosalia Mera, whose fortune is estimated at $3.5 billion. In third place is Elena Baturina, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $2.9 billion.
The richest woman on the planet
Wu Yahong made her $3.9 billion in real estate and is the chief executive of real estate company Longfor Properties. Last year, her company held an IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Yahong began her career at one of the Chinese factories as an engineer. Here she worked for four years. Then she devoted another five years of her life to working for the Chinese news agency Shirong. Soon after, she began exploring the real estate market in her hometown of Chongqing. Today, her company has representative offices in 10 cities.
Second in the world
Rosalia Mera's husband Amancio Ortega helped her get rich. Now Forbes estimates Mera's fortune at $3.5 billion, and she started by helping her husband create women's dressing gowns and underwear in her own home. Now they own one of the world's most successful clothing manufacturers, Inditex, and the Zara chain of stores. The couple divorced several years ago, but Rosalia Mera retained a 7% stake in the company, and the IPO raised $600 million in cash, which she invested in a Spanish film production company, a fishing group, and companies trying to find a way to cure cancer. She also created the Paideia Foundation, which helps children with physical and mental disabilities.
Third in the world
Baturina is second only to two women in the world in terms of financial status, which the magazine estimates at $2.9 billion. But Luzhkov’s wife surpassed such famous business women in the list as, for example, the owner of the Gap clothing store chain Doris Fisher and the famous TV presenter Oprah Winfrey. The fortune of each of them is estimated at $2.4 billion. Luzhkov’s wife is richer than the owner of the Benetton brand, Julian Benetton, with 2.1 billion. Baturina has also outstripped the rich writer JK Rowling, who earned one billion dollars from a series of novels about Harry Potter and its film adaptation.
Meanwhile, Baturina began her career as a worker at a factory. Then she entered the Moscow Institute of Management. In 1991, she created the Inteko company, which began with the creation of plastic tableware and furniture. Since then, Inteko's activities have expanded significantly - it is engaged in both the production of building materials and construction itself. True, during the crisis year of 2008, Inteko had to freeze several expensive real estate projects in Moscow. But Baturina created a subsidiary company, Patriot, which began to focus on the construction of affordable housing. In November 2009, she helped restore the giant monument “Worker and Collective Farm Woman,” which cost the Moscow budget $100 million, the magazine writes.
Baturina earns more than her husband thanks to her husband
Last year, Baturina earned not only more than her husband, the mayor of Moscow, but also more than any other Russian official. As I wrote earlier, according to published income, Elena Baturina earned almost 31 billion rubles, which is 4.5 times more than a year earlier (7 billion rubles). Yuri Luzhkov reported his income in 2009 in the amount of about 8 million rubles.
Of the 31 billion rubles, Baturina earned 28 billion rubles from the purchase and sale of securities, in particular, shares of Gazprom and Sberbank, as well as from the sale of a stake in the Ramenskoye trading house in the north-west of Moscow (58 hectares). The remaining 3 billion rubles are wages and other bonuses from Inteko. The company itself explained that about 27 billion rubles were spent on paying off loans to Gazprombank and other Inteko creditors. The remaining 4 billion rubles are for personal income tax payments.
Baturina has six cars, of which three are Mercedes and two are Porsche. Luzhkov does not own any cars at all. And an apartment of 445 sq.m. is registered in Baturina’s name. and a residential building in Austria with a slightly smaller area - 321 sq.m. However, of the new acquisitions during the year, there were only two houses abroad, which were not owned, but rented. One house in the UK with an area of 1203 sq.m., the other in Spain with an area of 1628 sq.m.
