Abramov is a co-founder of Evraz, the second-largest steelmaker in Russia. He owns 19.4% of the company as well as 2.3% of Norilsk Nickel, the world's biggest nickel producer. Other interests include 40% of London-based Truphone and 22% of Russia Forest Products Group, a Siberian timber and transport business.
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The majority of Abramov's fortune stems from a 19.4% stake in publicly traded Evraz, the second-largest steelmaker in Russia, according to the World Steel Association website. He owns the stake through Cyprus-based holding company Abiglaze.
Abramov collected about $2.2 billion in Evraz dividends and from selling shares in the company's 2005 IPO and secondary offering in 2007. He collected another $1.9 billion in 2006, when he and his partner Alexander Frolov sold 41% of Evraz to Abramovich. The value of his cash investments is based on these proceeds, as well as the effect of taxes and market performance.
Abramov and Frolov invested $125 million in London-based Truphone in early 2013, according to Reuters, and now billionaires own 60% of the mobile Internet company, according to company filings. The partners also control Iroko Pharmaceuticals and Compound Photonics Group, according to a Nov. 21 2016 report in Vedomosti daily.
According to Abramov's investment company, Invest AG, website and Bloomberg data, he owns 22% of Russia Forest Products Group, a forestry company operating in eastern Siberia, and has minority stakes in publicly traded gold producer Highland Gold Mining and premium-food retailer Azbuka Vkusa. He bought a 5.9% stake in Norilsk Nickel with Abramovich in 2013, according to media reports.
Investments in real estate in the Turks and Caicos as well as in the Czech Republic are not included in the asset breakdown because stakes aren't disclosed.
Maria Starovoyt, a spokeswoman for Evraz, said Abramov declined to comment on his net worth.
Alexander Abramov was born in Krasnodar, Russia, in 1959 and began his career as a scientist in the early 1980s. He graduated from The Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1982, and ran a laboratory at the Joint Institute for High Temperatures, a research body that studies high energy densities and shock wave physics and applied electrodynamics.
He entered business after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and founded his first firm in 1992, importing and selling fitness equipment. He later joined former classmates from the Moscow Institute to create EvrazMetall, which exported Russian steel. Abramov and a minority partner Alexander Frolov acquired three steel plants in Russia between 2001 and 2003 -- Nizhny Tagil Iron and Steel Plant, West Siberian Iron and Steel Plant, and Novokuznetsk Iron and Steel Plant -- which formed the foundation of Evraz, with now has operations in iron ore and coal mining and steel manufacturing.
The partners sold shares in Evraz on the London Stock Exchange in 2005, raising more than $400 million, and a year later collected $3 billion more when they sold 41 percent of the company to billionaire Roman Abramovich, who had just sold his stake in Sibneft for almost $10 billion. Abramov used the proceeds to invest in gold, forestry and mobile Internet companies. He teamed with Abramovich again in 2013 when the pair bought a 5.9 percent stake in Norilsk Nickel, the world's second-largest nickel producer.
Abramov lives in Moscow with his wife.