Andrey Melnichenko

Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko (Андрей Игоревич Мельниченко; Андрэй Iгаравiч Мельнічэнка; born 8 March 1972) is a Russian-Emirati billionaire entrepreneur.

He is the founder and ex-beneficiary of fertilizer producer EuroChem Group and coal producer SUEK, and was a non-executive director in both companies until 9 March 2022.

In 2022 Forbes and Bloomberg estimated his net worth at $15.8 billion and $17.4 billion respectively, which makes him one of the richest persons in Russia.

In the 2023 ranking, for the first time, he took first place among Russian billionaires with a fortune of $25.2 billion (58th place in the world).

According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index his net worth is about $21.9 billion as of February 2024.

After the Soviet Union fell, he began trading currency with two friends while a physics student at Moscow State University, and then registered a bank, MDM Bank.

Melnichenko took an interest in the commodities market and began buying assets in coal and fertilizers, with the acquisition of plants and mines, many of which were distressed.

He founded fertilizer producer Eurochem and coal energy company SUEK.

Melnichenko was born on 8 March 1972 in Gomel, Byelorussian SSR.

His parents, a Belarusian father and Ukrainian mother, were teachers.

He attended the Advanced Education and Science Centre of the Lomonosov Moscow State University, and in 1989, became a student of the Faculty of Physics at Moscow State University.

He then transferred to the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, from which he graduated in finance.

While at university, Melnichenko began his entrepreneurial ventures by opening a currency exchange booth on the campus.

Having made their first US$50,000 through a chain of the currency exchange booths, Melnichenko and his partners, two like-minded fellow students, received a banking license from the Bank of Russia.

From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, MDM Bank expanded through acquisition, integrating seven regional banks.

MDM Bank did not participate in any post-Soviet privatization programs or the loans-for-shares auctions of the 1990s.

In 1993, at the age of 21, Melnichenko co-founded the MDM Bank.

The bank moved on buying currency at the interbank foreign exchange, developing a derivatives market and debt instruments.

From 1993 to 1997, Melnichenko chaired the Board of Directors of MDM Bank.

In 1997, Melnichenko bought out MDM Bank shares from his partners and became the sole shareholder of the bank and the chairman of the management board.

Bloomberg reported that "unlike many bigger rivals, MDM came through the 1998 Russian financial crisis nearly unscathed, thanks to a conservative credit policy, the lack of illiquid assets and no exposure to government bonds. As competitors went under, the lender snagged some of the biggest Russian companies as clients."

In 2000, Melnichenko, together with Sergei Popov, a former metals trader from Ural, co-founded the MDM Group for industrial investments in three areas: pipeline manufacturing, coal production and processing, and the production and processing of fertilizers.

From 2001 to 2005, he chaired MDM Bank's board of directors.

From 2001 to 2004, Melnichenko was the President of the MDM Group.

MDM Bank was named the "Bank of the Year" by The Banker in 2002 and 2003.

In 2003, Euromoney and, in 2004, Global Finance, named it the "Best Russian Bank".

From 2004 to 2007, Melnichenko sold shares of MDM Bank to his MDM Group partner Sergei Popov, and focused on the development of the industrial assets in fertilizers and coal.

Earlier, Melnichenko became the chairman of the mineral and chemical company OJSC EuroChem in April 2004.

When EuroChem was founded, the purchased assets included several nitrogen plants and a phosphate mine with Soviet-era equipment.

New manufacturing facilities were built in Novomoskovsk, Nevinnomyssk, and Kovdor (including an apatite and shtaffelite ores processing complex).

EuroChem bought licenses for potash deposits in Volgograd (2005) and Perm (2008), launching plans to develop two large potash industrial plants.

It was done through the acquisition of more than 50 independently run and owned businesses: joint-stock companies, plants and mines, which enabled him to form three separate companies: SUEK, EuroChem and TMK (which he exited in 2006 through an IPO at the London Stock Exchange).

These industries were derelict and risky and not subject to the political influence that dominated other sectors.

With the process of post-Soviet era privatizations having finished five years earlier, no more than 5% of the assets purchased were acquired from the state.

Following Melnichenko's decision to step down from MDM Bank in 2007, the International Financial Corporation (IFC) purchased 5% of MDM Bank shares for US$185 million, valuing the bank at US$3.7 billion.

Having served its consolidating purpose, MDM Group ceased to exist.

In 2007, he became EuroChem's majority shareholder.

EuroChem's two potash mines are planning to produce 8 million metric tons of the fertilizer a year, a 10th of current world output.

According to Bloomberg, "the acquisition of a BASF SE plant in Antwerp by EuroChem for 830 million euros ($930 million) brought in new technologies" for the company.

EuroChem acquired laboratories in Germany in 2011, which led to the creation of similar facilities in Russia and other countries, which are working on the development of second-generation fertilizers, including advanced slow-release products aimed at reducing the environmental footprint of the agricultural sector.