Roman Avdeev, the main owner of Credit Bank of Moscow, does not associate his successes with business. He is philosophical about many things, and considers family values ​​and movement a priority in his life. But it was his business successes that allowed the banker not only to become one of the hundred richest entrepreneurs in Russia, but also to expand his empire, create several charitable foundations, help orphans and, most importantly, become the largest billionaire in the world.

Dossier:

  • FULL NAME: Roman Ivanovich Avdeev.
  • Date of Birth: July 17, 1967
  • Education:

    Moscow International University of Business and Information Technologies;

    Lipetsk State Technical University.

  • Business start date / age: 1989/22 years old.
  • Startup activity: trade in equipment and computers.
  • Current activity:

    President of the management company "MKB Capital";

    Chairman of the Board of Directors of LLC Concern ROSSIUM;

    Chairman of the Board of Directors of PJSC INGRAD;

    member of the Board of Directors of NPF Soglasie JSC, NPF Soglasie-OPS JSC, SKS Bank (LLC);

    member of the Supervisory Board of PJSC CREDIT BANK OF MOSCOW.

  • Link to pages in social. networks:

Roman Avdeev is a multifaceted and interesting personality. Reading his publications - Roman Ivanovich writes columns for Forbes, maintains a personal blog in LJ, has pages on social networks - you are amazed at the depth of thought and philosophical outlook on many things, including charity, business success, life principles. A single thread that connects all statements is the reasoning about the inalienability of continuous changes from the life of every person.

For Roman Avdeev, business is just a means to achieve goals, and success is dynamics.

“The goal of any business is to create profit-generating systems. But the business itself is a tool, not a goal. And from this point of view, in business it is not so much the profit itself and the technology of obtaining it that are important, but the possibility of creativity ... ”, - R. Avdeev.
Source: personal site.

And this applies to any spheres of his activity and hobbies. Roman was able to assess the emerging opportunities and future prospects back in the late 80s, at a time when many were afraid of any changes, did not know in which direction to move.

His first business, dealing with the trade of radio components, was rapidly gaining momentum, and the aspiring entrepreneur was already able to discern the potential of banking.

The idea was embodied in the 1994 acquisition of Credit Bank of Moscow. Although, in fact, it was just an office and a package of documents. From that moment on, the success story of both Roman Avdeev himself and his brainchild, the MKB Bank, begins.

Fig. 1. Successful businessman and philanthropist Avdeev.
Source: lenta.ru

Avdeev's interests expanded far beyond the boundaries of banking. For almost 30 years of entrepreneurial activity, he has been involved in agriculture, commercial real estate, development, pharmaceuticals, retail trade, and natural resource extraction. But in most cases, a successful business was sold, and the proceeds were used to capitalize the same MKB bank.

“Business is just a business that will sooner or later be sold”, - R. Avdeev.

The most successful projects were consolidated under the wing of the Rossium concern, which was founded by Avdeev in 2006 and remains today the main investment division of the businessman.

The empire of Roman Ivanovich expanded systematically, so the information about the entry of the main owner of the bank MKB in 2011 into the Forbes rating did not surprise anyone.

But the businessman himself was philosophical about the change in status.

“Perhaps someone will think that I am cunning, but I am absolutely not moved by the fact that my last name appeared on the famous Forbes list. Neither before nor after this circumstance has anything changed in my life and business. Not surprisingly, none of the people who know me well thought of congratulating me on this event. It is much more valuable for me that Forbes readers are more interested not in the issues of my business, but in more eternal family values, ”- Roman Avdeev in an interview for Forbes magazine.

Indeed, family values ​​for Roman are not just high-flown words. After all, 23 children are being brought up in his family, 19 of which are adopted.

How does a successful businessman manage to keep his finger on the pulse of a difficult business, take care of his rather big family and help orphans, keep several blogs and devote time to his sports hobbies? Perhaps we can find the answers in a short biography and statements by Roman Avdeev.

Towards Big Business

The small homeland of Roman Avdeev is the city of Odintsovo in the Moscow region. He was born here in July 1967, and lives here today with his large family.

Rice. 2. The Avdeev family.
Source: site romanavdeev.ru

The hero's childhood was not much different from the standard childhood of most Soviet schoolchildren. The Avdeev family lived modestly, if not poorly. According to Roman himself, he had to go to school in a sweatshirt - work clothes that were given to parents at work.

By the way, the boy did not have much interest in studying. The realization of the importance of the process came only in high school.

Fig. 3. Roman Avdeev as a child.
Source: site romanavdeev.ru

Like many teenagers of that time, he was seriously interested in radio electronics. But this hobby did not affect the choice of the university. In 1984, the guy entered the Moscow Power Engineering Institute.

But he managed to unlearn only 2 years, as he was drafted into the ranks of the Soviet Army. He served in the city of Kostroma in the construction battalion.

Rice. 4. Student and soldier Roman Avdeev, 1984-1986.
Source: site romanavdeev.ru

After the service, his life did not change too much, except that worries about his family and little son were added. Student Avdeev had to look for ways to feed a young family. But part-time work at the department of the institute and night work as a watchman and a cleaner in one of the vocational schools made it possible to earn crumbs, which were not enough even for the most necessary.

Everything changed dramatically in 1989.

“During the years of perestroika and the collapse of the USSR, the rules of life have completely changed. People got the opportunity to start their own business, but only a few decided on it. Then it was necessary to take a risk, take responsibility, but the majority was not ready for this, ”- R. Avdeev.

And he took a chance and never regretted it. Avdeev's first business, which he organized in 1989, was associated with the sale of radio components, as well as decoders for televisions.

Rice. 5. Aspiring entrepreneur in '89.
Source: site romanavdeev.ru

At first, they traded in the markets of Moscow, later they entered the markets of other cities, including Leningrad, began to transport computers from abroad, and entered into a supply agreement with the Ukrainian enterprise Elektronmash. The specifics of the work and the emergence of national currencies forced Avdeev to engage in currency exchange operations. It was at this time that he realizes that he gets more profit from converting rubles than from trading operations.

So the idea came up to try your hand at banking.

“Around this time, I got the idea that a bank could be an independent business. By the way, the banking business still seems interesting and promising to me, ”- R. Avdeev.

The path from a paper business to the largest financial institution

Avdeev found his "own bank" from an advertisement. In fact, in 1994 he bought not a ready-made business, but only a package of documents and a loud name - "Credit Bank of Moscow". In the load he got an office and a staff of 14 employees.

Rice. 6. An aspiring banker in 1994.
Source: site romanavdeev.ru

At the beginning of his journey, he hardly planned to create a bank that will take the 9th place in terms of assets in 2018, losing position only, and will be recognized as a systemically important financial institution, the largest private regional commercial bank.

At the same time Avdeev continued to experiment, try his hand in other directions:

“The main thing in business is a sense of the moment and the speed of decision making”, - R. Avdeev.

He sold the non-core business without regret, and directed the proceeds from the sale of assets to the capitalization of his bank. But the decision to direct all funds and efforts to the development of the ICD Roman Ivanovich takes only in 2008.

It was at this time that he became the Chairman of the Board of the IBC.

“I believe that a shareholder should not run the bank. But it was during this period that I had to take full responsibility upon myself, strengthen the team, raise the corporate spirit, "- R. Avdeev.

It took him 10 months to bring the business to a new stage of development. Thanks to a well-thought-out strategy, the bank painlessly survived the crisis and even improved its positions.

Roman Ivanovich himself left the leading post and "took an observation position."

Other business assets of Avdeev

Avdeev began to consolidate his assets in 2006 by founding the Rossium Concern.

Billionaires are also different. Someone needs yachts, planes, football clubs, Faberge eggs. The owner of the bank, Roman Avdeev, has adopted 19 orphans in addition to his four children. The billionaire, ranked 69th by Forbes magazine with a fortune of $ 1.3 billion, considers a large family to be his main wealth. How it developed and what to do with orphanhood in the country - told "RG" the banker with many children.

Ashamed in front of children

Roman Ivanovich, if you were not a wealthy person, would you have adopted so many orphans?

Roman Avdeev: It is difficult to answer this question honestly. Of course, my financial condition helps me a lot. After all, we also face serious medical problems in children, and we have to solve them abroad. As you can imagine, not free. We have the opportunity to hire teachers, nannies. But I know families that are not at all wealthy who take a child. My friends adopted an orphan with a birth trauma - the same age as their own child. I take off my hat to them. If I had enough willpower to take a disabled child - I don't know. You can fill in whatever you want, but it's not words that are valuable, but deeds.

What prompted you to take your first child?

Roman Avdeev: I come from the Soviet Union. And what was promoted is not an empty phrase for me. When I see a grandmother on the street who sells something because she needs money, I feel uncomfortable that I have a lot of them. And in front of the children who have been abandoned, it is a shame. I tried to help orphanages and came to the conclusion that it was useless. Well, they will change the windows there for plastic ones, make repairs - this will make the children neither hot nor cold. This is for the reviewers. If you want to do something for the child himself, do it. Not everyone has the opportunity to adopt an orphan. But more important is the readiness. When I realized that the family was ready for such a step, we adopted twins. And then it's easier. Now the three elders are already living separately, but in the summer we adopted three babies, so 20 children remain with us.

In the minds of many, the wife of a billionaire should spend time in beauty salons, and you just have Sophia Tolstaya ...

Roman Avdeev: She took me with 12 children. We started adopting orphans with our previous wife, who unfortunately died. To be honest, I was no longer going to marry with such a burden. It is generally more difficult for a woman than for a man to accept someone else's child into the family. This is a strong emotional stress. Elena accepted everyone, our daughter was born, and we adopted five more. At the same time, she teaches English at the institute, although I hum in her ear to quit her job.

Morning with exercise

It is difficult even to imagine the day of such a large family ...

Roman Avdeev: Today I got up at five in the morning, went to the gym. I did not see anyone - there were no fools to study at this time. I'll be back in the evening - the children will sleep. It often happens to me.

We have two in the fourth grade who get up to school on their own, four more first-graders - they are helped to pack up and have breakfast. All study at a regular state gymnasium in Odintsovo. There is a half-hour drive from the house - the driver takes it.

After lunch, preparatory students go to class. Before that, they went to kindergarten - also ordinary, now we are preparing them for school. Reading and writing is one thing, but it is psychologically difficult to sit through 40 minutes of a lesson. Therefore, we load with sports: in the house there is a swimming pool, in the yard there is an ice rink. It is bad that the main classes are held at home, because of this there is little communication with peers. I try to socialize them, not isolate them from life.

Of course, we also have helpers, a cook, and drivers ... We don't all fit in one house, there are four of them on the site. Each child has his own room, his own personal space. In the summer we leave for the Lipetsk region - there are also several houses built there.

Are the expenses for such a family comparable, for example, to the maintenance of a yacht or an airplane?

Roman Avdeev: I have never owned a yacht and am not going to buy one, so there is nothing to compare with. All basic family expenses are for nannies, teachers, tutors, coaches. In addition to Russian teachers, foreigners study with children. All our children learn two languages ​​from a year - English and Russian. This is important - two cultures, a different perception of the world. Then they easily learn both the third and the fourth language.

Send to study abroad?

Roman Avdeev: I will send, since I was twelve years old.

Do not sneak

With education, it is more or less clear, but what about upbringing? Remote access?

Roman Avdeev: To this question, I usually answer that the child does not need to devote a lot of time. You must give when you need it. The family is the environment where the child feels safe. We create such an environment for him. We get together for family councils, discuss what happened during the week. Without edification. It is important that the mechanism is launched that makes a person a person. Is this how a toddler is taught to walk? Supporting the handles - so as not to fall. In this case, bruises, bruises are inevitable. But not letting him walk is even more evil.

Are you a strict father?

Roman Avdeev: I play the role of Baba Yaga. When you need to seriously talk to someone, I do it. It happens, and we punish. On New Year's Eve we went to France to ski. The girls "set up" their brother, for which they were deprived of sweets for the whole vacation. But we talked - they understand why this happened. And I don't like sneak - I nip in the bud.

You, for sure, are often asked: are you afraid of genetics? "Abandoned" children come from drug addicts, alcoholics ...

Roman Avdeev: I think that genetics has no influence on moral issues. This is laid down by upbringing, traditions, culture. And here the role of parents is great. The formula is simple: my children should know what is good and what is bad. But I will not impose anything: when they grow up, they will make their own choice.

Do you know the most common wish of potential Russian adoptive parents? That it was "a girl of up to three years of Slavic appearance." Do you have a preference?

Roman Avdeev: We don't even talk about nationality. But age matters to us. We try to take abandoned kids up to one year old. Just to invest more in the child. This period - from zero to three years - is very important for its formation.

Is the secret of adoption necessary?

Roman Avdeev: I need it. Let the family decide for itself whether to tell the child that he has been adopted or not. After all, the stories are different ...

Will you tell the truth to your children?

Roman Avdeev: I do not hide the fact that it is impossible with so many children. There was a case when a child asked me if he was native? I say: we have a family, I am the godfather, Lena is the godmother. He ran away as if nothing had happened. And then I worried.

Photo from the family archive of Roman Avdeev.

If biological mom or dad shows up, will you let me in?

Roman Avdeev: Now this is hardly possible. But when the children grow up and if they want to find parents, I will help them.

You, like Bill Gates, wrote on your blog that you are not going to leave a legacy to children. This is true?

Roman Avdeev: Who does not repeat the Chinese proverb that one should give a fishing rod, not a fish, but still give a fish ... Of course, I will help children, but I am not going to do it for them. When the elders grow up, I buy the first car. I used to say that the best first car is a Zhiguli. Now I stand on the position that it can be anything, but not more expensive than 400 thousand rubles. Of course, they are offended. As a child, I was also offended that someone had a better toy, but we lived quite modestly. But this is normal: in general, this is how the soul grows. This is how we socialize.

Have you ever wanted such a big family?

Roman Avdeev: This is not how I put the question. This is my destiny, and I am happy with it. For me, family is not a burden, but a part of my life that I enjoy.

Help legend

In connection with the new law, serious passions flared up around orphans. Do you think it is necessary to give Russian children for adoption abroad?

Roman Avdeev: If in our country there were not so many social orphans, there are almost 800 thousand of them in orphanages, and adoptive parents stood in line, then, of course, we would have done without foreigners. But in the context of the current situation, in my opinion, it is necessary to give back.

All children should live in families. Orphanages are a dead-end branch of development. I traveled a lot on them, I am well aware of the situation. The point is not that there are bad people or little money, the system itself is a sweatshop, it is not capable of raising adaptive members of society. And this is not a secret for anyone.

Now there are various proposals on how to reduce the number of orphans in the country. For example, to pay a lump sum of 100 thousand rubles for a disabled child, to simplify the adoption procedure ... Do you think this will have an effect?

Roman Avdeev: I am in favor of material incentives with both hands. But that alone doesn't solve anything. And sometimes it leads to the worst. If you remember, in one of the constituent entities of the federation, decent payments to foster families were established, but during the crisis they were cut, and people began to return their children back to orphanages. What a trauma for orphans!

But material incentives are not necessarily direct payments. These children should be guaranteed free education (so that they can go to university) and free medicine, including all necessary operations, and if the child is disabled, then prostheses.

The state itself, without the participation of citizens, cannot cope with orphanhood. It should form an environment where these problems will be addressed in a targeted manner. Its mission also includes the promotion of family values. It sounds like Soviet, but it is so. At least for the sake of self-preservation, the state should promote and support the family. And even in our advertising, if the image of a family is exploited, it is always a father, mother and one child.

Is the adoption procedure really so complicated today?

Roman Avdeev: This is one of the common "legends" that it is necessary to collect an incredible amount of papers. Of course, certificates are required that you are not a drug addict, have not been in prison and are not terminally ill. I don't even understand which one can be neglected? I easily completed all the children and went through all the courts. I was ready to pay, but there wasn't even a hint of it anywhere. True, there was a funny incident at the passport office. I come with a court decision to register the child, but they tell me: "We won't register it, you want to get an apartment from the state."

Is an orphanage for a long time?

Roman Avdeev: I'm afraid so. The task in society should be set differently: not to reduce the number of children in orphanages, but to do everything so that they do not get there. I was called to a TV show where young parents were sitting - former orphanages themselves, from whom four children were taken away because they live in poverty. It is easier for guardianship authorities to remove children from a dysfunctional family than to help her. This is not normal. Then let's go to India, take all the children from the slums.

As for state-owned orphanages, they need to be enlarged so that there is a pool, and all kinds of halls, clubs, circles. And the pupils must go to a regular school - together with their families. Although their parents will probably resist. In words, we are all for orphans, "but not in our school."

Help "RG"

Roman Avdeev is 45 years old. Born in Odintsovo near Moscow. He studied, as he himself says, in fits and starts: he started with the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, then - the University of Business and Information Technologies, the Technical University. From the first cooperators: at the age of 22, he began to produce PAL-SECAM decoders, which were in short supply then, which were sold on the Tushino radio market. After 5 years, he acquired a small bank with a dozen employees, now it is one of the largest in the country. Sports hobbies include yoga, skiing, rowing, cycling.

Sneakers bouncing pleasantly on the paths of Sokolniki Park, it was a clear August morning. The workout was interrupted by the phone ringing. Banker Roman Avdeev interrupted his run and picked up the phone. "Did you see that?" - asked his acquaintance. It was about a letter from Sergei Gavrilov, Alfa-Capital's sales manager, excerpts from which were published by Vedomosti. In the letter, Gavrilov warned clients about problems in several large banks, urged them not to wait for their reorganization and to transfer assets to more reliable banks. The list included Otkritie, B&N Bank, Promsvyazbank and Avdeev's Moscow Credit Bank.

Soon, the banker spoke with the co-owner of Alfa Group, Pyotr Aven - he called to personally apologize for what had happened. And then Gavrilov's prophecies began to come true: his letter was published in mid-August 2017, two weeks later the Central Bank sent Otkrytie to reorganize, followed by B&N Bank and Promsvyazbank. MKB is the only one from the "Moscow banking ring" (as banks began to be called from Gavrilov's letter) remained afloat. How did Avdeev manage to keep the bank and why did the financier, who preferred to do business alone, sell his stakes in the main assets?

The Fellowship of the Ring

A ruined city, people screaming with grief, bodies pulled out from under the rubble of buildings - this is how the Armenian Spitak saw after the earthquake in December 1988 volunteer students from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute. Among them was a freshman Roman Avdeev. For two weeks he and his comrades lived in tents: during the day he helped to clean up the rubble, at night he ate stew and warmed himself with alcohol. Before leaving, the volunteers were threatened with expulsion, but upon their return they set all the tests automatically.

Avdeev did not succeed in completing his studies at the MEI - he was expelled when, carried away by commerce, he abandoned his studies. Avdeev started out trading decoders in the markets, with high margins, the initial capital accumulation proceeded rapidly. In 1994, the Moscow Credit Bank (MCB) turned up to Avdeev, and he bought it for 2 billion non-denominated rubles (about $ 500,000). Soon the bank turned into one of the largest players in the collection services market in Moscow and the Moscow region. By the early 2000s, cash collection brought MKB more than 30% of commission income, and the clientele was appropriate: Avdeev relied on working with large retail chains and small private entrepreneurs, to whom he issued short loans secured by proceeds.

Everything changed during the 2008 crisis. Avdeev sold his land plots in the Moscow region, contributed 6 billion rubles to the capital of MKB, doubling it, and began generously lending to large companies, the limits on which were reduced by other banks. Among MKB's clients were Mechel, OGK-6, Miratorg, Severstal. In 2009–2010, the bank managed to almost triple its assets, up to 165.5 billion rubles.

Through investment holding "Rossium" Avdeev developed other projects, such as development. MKB began lending to housing developers and selling apartments through the real estate agency Domus-Finance. Then Avdeev founded the Ingrad company, she began to buy land plots and by 2015 became one of the largest developers in the Moscow region with a portfolio of projects of more than 1.8 million square meters. m.

Investments in NPF Soglasie, over which Avdeev acquired control in 2013, turned out to be successful. Then the fund's assets did not exceed 5 billion rubles. In 2014-2015, Soglasiy managed to attract almost 500,000 new clients; by the end of 2015, it managed 22 billion rubles of pension savings.

The largest private pension group at that time was formed around the bank "Otkrytie", its "NPF Elektroenergetiki" and "Lukoil-Garant" managed 287 billion rubles (14.3% of the total market). Boris Mints, one of the partners of Vadim Belyaev, the main shareholder of Otkrytie, as well as the Safmar group of Mikhail Gutseriev, also collected an impressive collection of NPFs, later united in the FG "Future". NPFs were bought, among other things, in order to finance the projects of their owners. The Central Bank tried to moderate their appetites, in particular, set limits on the share of affiliated companies and individual instruments in the fund portfolios. It was these restrictions that laid the foundation for the notorious "Moscow banking ring". “A group of enthusiasts came up with an elegant and formally legal scheme, involving funds, banks and issuers of securities that could be included in the top quotation lists. The principle was simple: your fund gives money for our projects, ours - for yours, ”says one of the financiers.

Did Avdeev's structures participate in these schemes? Avdeev himself calls any reasoning about the "banking ring" conspiracy theories. But in 2015, O1 Group (uniting the pension and development businesses of Boris Mints) owed MKB 24 billion rubles, and its pension funds kept 34 billion rubles in accounts and deposits in Avdeev's bank.

In the summer of the same year, Avdeev discussed with the Mints and Safmar funds the possibility of participating in the IPO of MKB. The deal did not take place - allegedly on the recommendation of the Central Bank, which did not like the fact that these same pension groups took part in the additional capitalization of Promsvyazbank, having bought out 10% for 6.9 billion rubles each. After the placement, during which MKB attracted 13.2 billion rubles, the funds of Mints, Gutseriev, as well as NPF RGS acquired approximately 3.5% of MKB in the secondary market. But one of the largest investors in the IPO was the Region Group, which serves Rosneft. At the end of 2015, she owned 9.5% of the MCB.

Rich "Region"

"There will be no more my leg either in the stadium or in your box!" - billionaire Alexander Mamut could not restrain himself. In the summer of 2003, he came to the owner of Luzhniki, Vladimir Alyoshin, to buy the Torpedo football club from him, but the deal fell through, although Mamut offered $ 30 million for the team, and billionaires Roman Abramovich and Suleiman Kerimov were ready to finance the purchase with him. The partners wanted to turn Torpedo into a European-level club.

The failure dealt a sensitive blow to Mamut's pride. He was a passionate fan of Torpedo and could not indifferently look at the absurd situation: two clubs with the same name were playing in Moscow at the same time. Historically, the owner of "Torpedo" was the plant. Likhachev (ZIL), he also owned the team's home stadium. Eduard Streltsov. In 1997, ZIL was unable to maintain "Torpedo" and sold it to Alyoshin. The fans did not forgive the club for moving to Luzhniki and convinced the ZIL management to create a clone Torpedo-ZIL team. Mamut tried to buy it too, but again failed: Torpedo-ZIL went to Mikhail Prokhorov, co-owner of Norilsk Nickel, during the division of assets with Vladimir Potanin, it went to Norilsk Nickel, and in 2010 the team was disbanded. Stadium them. Eduard Streltsov, together with the development company OPIN, went to Prokhorov.

In 2016, Roman Avdeev bought out OPIN. He came to the stadium and, according to him, was so imbued with the aura of the place that he decided to buy Torpedo (at that time the club again belonged to ZIL) and return the team to his native stadium. Although Avdeev himself is far from football. As a child, he rooted for CSKA Moscow - and then in spite of his father, a fan of "Spartak". “Now, by the will of fate, I have become a fan of Torpedo. At the end of the next season, we have to enter the National League, ”says the banker. But he has plans related to the project he inherited from Prokhorov for the development of the territory around the stadium. Streltsov with housing with an area of ​​266,000 sq. m. The head of the consulting company "TOP Idea" Oleg Stupenkov believes that this is one of the most promising projects in the portfolio of "Ingrad" (Avdeev merged it with OPIN).

Rossium's partner in Ingrad is the Region group; in the summer of 2017, it bought out 18.2% of the company for 7.5 billion rubles. Avdeev says that Region became a client of MKB back in 2006. Subsequently, Region, with the assistance of Rosneft, experienced a rapid transformation from a second-tier player into one of the largest asset managers in Russia. In 2011, the controlling owners of the "Region" became its top managers, headed by President Sergei Sudarikov. Together with them, Sergei Korol, who headed the RN-Trust company, which managed the assets of Neftegarant, the Rosneft pension fund, became a shareholder of the Region. The king was also a good friend of Pyotr Lazarev, who from the early 2000s oversaw the financial block of Rosneft.

In the early 2000s, Lazarev, through a chain of companies, was one of the beneficiaries of RN-Trust, later the King became the main owner of this company. Having bought out a stake in Region, he contributed RN-Trust to its capital. In addition, Rosneft sold Portfolio Investments to the Region group with assets worth 18 billion rubles. In 2011, Region's assets quadrupled to RUB 105 billion. Today Region is the fifth group in Russia in terms of assets under management (336.3 billion rubles). Neftegarant (divided into two structures: one manages 7.3 billion rubles of pension savings, the other - 56.5 billion rubles of corporate pensions) continues to be one of its clients, along with NPF Surgutneftegaz, Transneft and Sberbank. The relationship between the Region and the oil company is not limited to managing the money of future retirees of Rosneft: they act as co-owners in a number of projects, for example, the Sibintek company, the IT contractor of Rosneft.

In addition to Region, shares of MKB were bought out at the IPO by another management company Regionfinanceresurs, owned by Natalya Bogdanova, a former employee of Region, and she became the owner of 8.7% of the bank. A few months after the IPO, Rosneft also provided financing to MKB, placing several short-term deposits in the bank for 300 billion rubles, and then issuing a subordinated loan for $ 300 million until 2021. An acquaintance of Avdeev says that the bank's client relations with Rosneft began even earlier - in 2013, the structures of the oil company placed more than $ 500 million in MKB. rubles) growth of balances on accounts and deposits of customers from the chemical and oil industries. According to a Forbes source, during the 2014 crisis, the bank had problems with the return of this money, but Rosneft continued to finance it. Why did the oil company need Avdeev's bank?

Banks for Rosneft

“The main currency speculator of Russia has been found,” the politician Boris Nemtsov said on his Facebook on December 13, 2014, in the midst of a currency panic, when the dollar rate for the first time in history reached 60 rubles. The oppositionist assured that Rosneft took out a loan from the Central Bank for 625 billion rubles secured by its bonds, and then began to buy up foreign currency and brought down the ruble.

At the end of 2014, Rosneft found itself in a difficult position. The company's debt, 90% denominated in foreign currency, exceeded 2.5 trillion rubles, the due date for the next loan repayment for the purchase of TNK-BP was approaching, but US sanctions cut the company off from foreign funding. Could not help Rosneft and its subsidiary All-Russian Regional Development Bank (RRDB), which was also under sanctions. On December 11, the company placed bonds for 625 billion rubles, and a week later paid off $ 7 billion to foreign creditors. But Nemtsov was wrong, Otkritie Bank provided the currency to Rosneft, having received it from the Central Bank against the security of Rosneft bonds.

Later, in an interview with the Financial Times, VTB CEO Andrei Kostin admitted that Otkrytie was selected for this deal because it did not come under sanctions. Thanks to the deals with Rosneft, Otkritie almost doubled its assets, to 2.7 trillion rubles, becoming the largest private bank in Russia. The triumph lasted until July 2017, when the ACRA rating agency assigned the bank an unexpectedly low BBB- rating, which did not allow placing funds of budgetary organizations and pension savings in it. In a month, Otkrytie lost 621 billion rubles, and in August the bank went to reorganize.

Avdeev's bank, meanwhile, was also building up its assets. According to the estimates of Moody’s junior vice president Pyotr Paklin, the amount of reverse repo transactions (purchase of securities with an obligation to resell) makes up more than 40% of MKB's assets (only 1.88 trillion rubles under IFRS) and is comparable in size to the loan portfolio. Paklin explains the growth of reverse repo at MKB by the fact that the bank lends to several investment companies secured by bonds.

Avdeev does not disclose the economic nature of these transactions. Forbes sources familiar with the MKB business claim that this is a deal to finance Rosneft. Two interlocutors of Forbes in the financial market say that immediately after the annexation of Crimea and the imposition of sanctions, Rosneft began looking for a bank through which foreign currency financing could be attracted. At first, Otkritie Bank performed this function, but other options were also considered. The main condition was that the bank was not affiliated with an oil company, otherwise it could fall under sanctions. In the spring of 2017, Region, which represented the interests of Rosneft, considered the possibility of buying Svyaz-Bank and Globex from VEB (Region reported that this was not the case), but this deal was allegedly not approved by the presidential administration.

As a result, the choice fell on the ICD. Since the beginning of 2015, Rosneft has placed two dozen bond issues for 2.2 trillion rubles - some of them, according to Forbes sources, settled on the balance sheet of MKB, and the bank's assets in 2015 doubled to 1.2 trillion rubles.

In October 2017, Rosneft consolidated its cooperation with MKB: its structures RN-Nyaganneftegaz and Samotlorneftegaz placed subordinated deposits in the bank for 22 billion rubles for 49 years. At the same time, Avdeev held an SPO of the bank for 14.4 billion rubles. After that, Rossium retained 56.7% of the MCB, and the shares of the Region and Regionfinansursa group amounted to 8.7% and 10%, respectively.

Flight of the "Owl"

In 2008, Avdeev began to develop in Velsk, located two kilometers south of the colony, where one of the Yukos shareholders, Platon Lebedev, was sitting, the Sever Les group, which unites several woodworking enterprises. Avdeev appointed his son Anton as deputy general director of the group. Avdeev Jr. had to work in difficult conditions. “800 km to Moscow, 500 km to Arkhangelsk,” the banker's acquaintance describes Velsk. "There is only water at the factory, and the owner of one of the sawmills was once attacked by a bear." Avdeev himself is accustomed to more difficult conditions: he is fond of skiing, conquered Wilson Peak in Antarctica, and now dreams of Mount Matterhorn.

Roman Avdeev has 23 children, 19 of them are adopted. Avdeev began adopting children after, having provided support to several orphanages, he realized that the system was not working effectively enough. Now only one son, Kirill, works in the structures of Rossium, since Avdeev is against nepotism in business. He is not going to leave a large inheritance to his children, being content with little: his small office - five by six steps - at the headquarters of the ICD on Sretenka resembles the office of a middle manager.

Recently, Avdeev is ready to make room in business. In addition to the stake in Ingrad, the Region group bought out the Agronova-L agricultural holding, as well as 10% in the Soglasie NPF, which it manages. Avdeev also has another partner - a young financier Nikolai Katorzhnov. In 2009, he started working in the Otkritie group, and already in 2013, a year before his thirtieth birthday, he headed the London subsidiary of the group - broker Otkritie Capital International Limited (OCIL) and at the same time oversaw the investment block in Otkritie Bank. Katorzhnov specialized in repo transactions, his team participated in the financing of Rosneft. OCIL earned an average of $ 20 million in net profit per year; in early 2015, Katorzhnov retired from work at Otkritie and took up other projects. For example, he invested in CloudDC, which was building a data center in the Moscow region. Thanks to good relations with the leadership of the "Region" (including with Sudarikov) Katorzhnov in 2017 was able to sell CloudDC to Sibintek.

Sudarikov advised him to turn to Avdeev in order to realize his long-standing desire - to buy OCIL from the shareholders of the sinking Otkritie. Avdeev agreed, he, in his version, was looking for opportunities for the development of investment business within Rossium. The deal was carried out based on the value of OCIL's net assets, which is about $ 330 million. By that time, Otkritie had a temporary administration, but the Central Bank did not have any claims to the buyers.

Avdeev offered Katorzhnov to become a partner in Rossium, and he bought out part of the additional issue of the holding for 26 billion rubles, receiving about 10% in it. Katorzhnov says that he bought the shares of Rossium for 10 billion rubles (the rest was bought by Avdeev). Now Katorzhnov not only manages OCIL (which was renamed Sova Capital), but also received a mandate from Avdeev to develop the financial business in the group as a whole. Katorzhnov plans to turn Sova Capital into a full-fledged prime broker and estimates the possible effect of the merger with MKB at $ 100 million in additional margin.

MKB is actively recruiting a new team. The reverse side of the process is that the bank is left by top managers who have worked with Avdeev since the 2000s. “The old team has no confidence in its future, some of the managers are planning to buy out the cash collection business and set off on a free voyage,” says Avdeev's acquaintance. He and several people close to MKB told Forbes that the management of the bank actually passed to people representing the interests of Rosneft and the Region. For example, at the end of 2017, Mikhail Polunin became the first deputy chairman; earlier he headed the Peresvet bank, which sanitized Rosneft's RRDB.

Avdeev good-naturedly shrugs off any talk about the oil company, calling it just one of the bank's clients, and Polunin's arrival at the bank urges not to consider it in isolation from other major appointments: people from other banks, Gazprombank and Sberbank, also joined the board of MKB. However, Avdeev's acquaintances say that he himself has already moved away from the operational management of the bank for several years.

The founder of the MKB says that he does not intend to leave the business, and the "Region" Forbes reported that there are no plans for a further buyout of shares in the assets of "Rossium". “I haven’t heard that Roman Ivanovich wants to go out of business at all,” says Katorzhnov. - Rossium has now changed its strategy and is actively working to reduce financial leverage. This also translates into a willingness to give third-party partners the opportunity to invest in some of their projects. "

“What's the difference who owns the shares of MKB and Rossium? All business decisions are in any case consistent with the largest investor, "says Forbes' interlocutor, who worked in the financial structures of Rosneft. According to him, the oil company has elevated this principle to an absolute: not a single step can be taken without approval from Rosneft. It looks like the same will be the case in the ICD.

- Featuring Yulia Titova

Avdeev opened his own cooperative in 1989. In 1994, he bought the Moscow Credit Bank. By 2006, he created the agricultural holding "Chernozemye" and became the general director of the investment concern "Rossium". In 2010, he opened the Domus-Finance real estate agency, and in 2012, the Ingrad development company. In 2017, he bought the Torpedo football club. Married three times.

The main business of the life of businessman Roman Avdeev is his family. Given its size, he built several houses on his site. Children have playrooms, a cinema, a swimming pool, a ski track. It is a pity to bring everyone together - already grown up and still small - does not work out often, only on big holidays.

Roman Avdeev adopted his first children when he was 34 years old. The second wife of the businessman then had oncology, but the wife supported her husband's intention to take twins Katya and Tima into the family. Agreed with the decision of the father and sons from the first marriage, Anton and Cyril. After the death of his second wife, Roman Ivanovich, being a wealthy widower, adopted 10 more children.

Roman Avdeev: “We discussed with my wife for a long time whether we can or cannot. Because there was such a story - I helped orphanages for a long time, and then I realized that it didn’t work ”.

According to Avdeev, it is easier for a man than for a woman to accept non-natural children. And he is very grateful to his third wife, who brings up adopted children and children from past marriages with him as family.

Avdeev said that for the first time he decided to take just two children, because he wanted both a boy and a girl at once.

Roman Avdeev: “We wanted twins precisely because these children, they have less chances to get into the family. Take it easier than one. Then I took all the other children from Odintsovo or Naro-Fominsk hospitals - just the nearest districts. We had gender preferences. But then, when it came down to specifics, they got confused all the time. Ideally, they wanted to have an equal share of boys and girls. And now we have more boys. "

Now eight children live with their parents. The youngest are 6 years old. From the age of 12, many were sent to study abroad - to the UK and Germany. Children spend weekends with their parents whenever possible. Making a stool for a Forbes billionaire with your son is the best entertainment for Saturday night.

The main thing in relationships with children, according to Avdeev, is trust, and not the amount of time you spend with them. In his family, they receive various opportunities, but the billionaire does not plan to leave an inheritance to them.

Roman Avdeev: “I try to help them and try to give what will remain with them all the time - this is upbringing, education, knowledge. And then they have to choose and rely on themselves. I always say: I will help you, and you can always count on me, but I will not do anything for you. I definitely want to leave everything for charity and for solving the problems of orphanhood. "

What should life be like for a billionaire? The imagination vividly draws landscapes of the Californian hills, a snow-white yacht off the coast of Nice, the interiors of Michelin restaurants, the leather interior of a private jet. But the life of Roman Avdeev turned out to be different ... With a fortune of 1.4 billion dollars, instead of buying another football club, he won 19 ships in order ... to become an adoptive father to 19 babies.

short biography

Roman Ivanovich Avdeev was born on July 17, 1967. The future oligarch grew up in Odintsovo. Here he graduated from high school - ordinary, general education. Now it is MBOU Odintsovo Secondary School No. 3.

The businessman studied so-so. As he himself recalls, in fits and starts - he interrupted from threes to fours. But, according to the teachers, he was always distinguished by perseverance. If he set a goal, he went ahead to it, despite the obstacles.

After school he entered the Moscow Power Engineering Institute. Later he graduated from 2 more universities: Moscow International University of Business and Information Technologies and Lipetsk State Technical University (specialty - "Industrial and Civil Engineering").

It remains a mystery how one person combined a thirst for business (humanitarian profile) and love for various technical disciplines (for example, "sopromat").

Not only did the businessman go to an ordinary school and not the most prestigious universities, he also managed to serve in the army, where he was drafted immediately after the second year of the MPEI. Who would have thought that this ordinary-looking young man would enter the Forbes list and become one of the richest people in the country?

Becoming in business

However, back in 1989 Avdeev founded the first cooperative. Then he was engaged in spare parts for imported TVs - then it was bad with electronics, with components it was even worse. This is how the "start-up capital" was earned. Later there was a major contract with the Ukrainian "Electronmash". But with the collapse of the Union, the future banker quickly realized that selling currency was more profitable than physical goods - this is how the Moscow Credit Bank appeared. It all started with the purchase of a license and a staff of 14 people. But Roman Ivanovich clearly pulled out a "lucky ticket" - later MKB will enter the "ten" largest banks in the country.

In addition to the banking sector, the oligarch mastered construction and housing and communal services - this is where his technical education came in handy. Having bought "Ingrid" by Mikhail Prokhorov, Avdeev actively plunged into real estate.

There were experiments in the agricultural field. To this day, the banker owns part of the assets of Agronov-L, a small (nationwide) land bank. Prior to that, the agricultural holding "Chernozemye" was successfully sold.

However, the billionaire spends money in a very peculiar way. For example, in 2017 he presented his native school with a modern classroom for experiments and experiments, equipped with the latest technology. He founded the Arithmetic of Good charitable foundation. With the money of the businessman, the Moscow football club Torpedo was literally "raised from its knees".

But he never had a yacht. According to the oligarch, he is not going to buy it. Instead, he pays for teachers, nannies and doctors for foster children - he has 19. And that's not counting 4 of his own.

Personal life of the oligarch

Roman Ivanovich is married twice. The first wife, unfortunately, died. It was with her that he made the decision to adopt adopted children. And not one - two.

This did not happen immediately. First, there was the usual help to orphanages. We bought things, did repairs. But, as Roman Ivanovich admits, over time, an understanding of the global futility of this venture came. Yes, something was changing point by point. New windows were installed, bed linen was changed there. But on a national scale, this cannot change the system. And does this really need children?

I didn’t want to help for the "tick", for the inspectors. And children more than anything else dream of living in a family. Therefore, as the businessman says, if you want to do something for the child - do it. And so they began to adopt ...

As the businessman himself put it in an interview, the second wife "took" him already with the "train" - together with her husband-oligarch, she got 12 adopted children. But the Avdeevs did not stop there. Currently, the family is raising 23 children - 19 foster children and 4 relatives.

Children are the most important thing in life

In his blog, Roman Avdeev once said that he would not leave a legacy to the children. According to the entrepreneur, the task of parents is to give children the opportunity to choose their own path, to do what they love. Everything else they have to achieve themselves. By the way, Bill Gates did the same, bequeathed all his fortune to a charitable foundation.

Roman Ivanovich admits that in the family he plays the role of Baba Yaga. Serious heart-to-heart conversations and punishment are exclusively his prerogative.

The guys are not particularly pampered. Even the first car, according to Avdeev, should not be more expensive than 400 thousand rubles. Although he buys it for the children at his own expense. Of course, it's not greed at all. It is necessary to instill in children the ability to achieve their goals, to rely only on themselves. As the businessman says, "a person should be a fighter in life, and not just go with the flow." We need to teach children to value work. After all, the oligarch himself worked as a cleaner after the army - he had to somehow feed his family.

By the way, the native and adopted children of Roman Ivanovich Avdeev all study at the same secondary school No. 3 in Odintsovo. Although the father of many children does not spare money for education. The best teachers, both Russians and foreigners, have been studying with each child since childhood - children learn 2 foreign languages ​​at once. Just regular school is a way to socialize kids. A kind of "shock therapy" is an excellent preparation for an independent life.

How does Avdeev find free time for children?

Sports, swimming pool, vacation trips to the mountains - you just wonder how businessman Roman Avdeev has time to devote so much time to his family. Avdeev himself once expressed his best opinion on this topic: “You don’t need to devote a lot of time to children, you need to devote it on time”.

The businessman believes that the most important period in a child's life is from 1 to 3 years old. Therefore, the Avdeevs try to take refuseniks at this very age.

Of course, it will not be possible to help everyone - in 2017, according to official statistics, there are more than 800 thousand orphans in Russia. But Roman Ivanovich sincerely hopes that someday every child will live in a family.

"Credit Bank of Moscow" by Roman Ivanovich Avdeev

Founded in 1992. It was originally a small joint stock company with a modest office and 14 employees. In 1994 the list of founders was expanded. It was then that Roman Ivanovich Avdeev entered it. In 1995, the organizational and legal form was changed to a limited liability company. At the same time, the bank entered the 100 largest financial and credit companies in the country.

Since 2017, MKB has been one of the ten largest banks in the country, and the Central Bank on September 13 included it in the list of 11 largest credit institutions that are systemically important for the country's economy.

Football club "Torpedo"

The interests of an entrepreneur are not limited only to business. With his employment, Roman Ivanovich manages to find time for public affairs. So, Avdeev could not remain indifferent to the fate of the Moscow "Torpedo".

When I found out that the club was not playing in its own stadium, I decided to buy it. Moreover, according to Avdeev himself, the goal was precisely to preserve the club and its traditions, and not to make a profit. By the way, "Torpedo" went to an entrepreneur with a debt of almost a billion rubles. Roman Ivanovich promised that all debts would be paid off.

This is hardly charity. Yes, the football club has got a new stadium where fans can enjoy the game of their favorite team. But somehow behind the scenes in this story, the project of residential and commercial development of the adjacent territory approved by the mayor's office of the capital remains. The success of Torpedo is a good advertisement for the sale of apartments in the area.

Charitable Foundation "Arithmetic of Good"

But "The arithmetic of good" is another matter. Roman Ivanovich founded this charitable foundation to help sick children. It happens that an expensive operation or treatment is urgently needed. And officials just shrug their shoulders. This is where Avdeev comes to the rescue with his millions.

conclusions

The example of Roman Ivanovich shows that everyone can achieve success in life. You don't need to have influential relatives, start-up capital, and so on for this. Of course, it's good if there are some "levers" that can multiply the efforts made. But the bottom line is that these efforts must be made unambiguously. For example, Avdeev gets up at 5 am. He drives to the capital himself, goes to the gym or does yoga when "normal people" just open their eyes. At the same time, he goes to bed no earlier than midnight. And so over the past 3 decades.

Now Roman Avdeev is on the Forbes list. But it was not easy for him. Everyone wants to live beautifully. But those who dream only of material benefits will never have enough motivation to go all the way to the end. The problem is that they already want to dine in the best restaurants, drive expensive cars, and relax in the best resorts.

But Roman Avdeev for years denied himself what he needed, worked as a cleaner and a security guard - fed the business. It's no surprise that the business has grown and is now feeding it. The truth is, for most people, the price they have to pay to become truly rich and successful is too high. It takes too much effort, nerves and self-denial to earn that kind of money from scratch.

Many people think that money is evil. A rich person must be greedy. It is not for nothing that the collective image of old Scrooge is so popular among children and adults.

Roman Ivanovich is a living example of a billionaire who does not put money at the forefront. It is more important to be in harmony with yourself internally. And when you feel that you have to help, help. It is important that Roman Ivanovich found himself, found his destiny, is engaged in a business that he sincerely loves. Villas, cars, yachts and private planes are all that comes.