Kantor is a major shareholder of Acron, a Russian producer of mineral fertilizers. The Velikiy Novgorod-based company had a production output of more than 7 million tonnes and revenue of $1.7 billion in 2020. The billionaire also owns the world's largest collection of 20th century avant-garde art.
Vyacheslav Kantor's net worth of $6.70B can buy ...
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The majority of Kantor's fortune is derived from his stake in Acron, a publicly traded producer of mineral fertilizers.
Kantor owns 40.9% of Acron, according to a June 2022 statement from the company. He transferred a 45.1% stake to executives at the fertilizer maker after he was sanctioned by the EU and the UK in April 2022. Kantor had previously held 94% of the shares through Cyprus-based Terasta Enterprises, according to company spokesperson Anastasiya Gromova in January 2022.
The share count used in this analysis was updated on July 5, 2022 to reflect the reduced holding and this led to a decrease in the calculation of about $7 billion.
The billionaire's art collection is worth $275 million, according to Thomas Seydoux, head of SEYDOUX & ASSOCIÉS Fine Art, an international art trading company based in Geneva, Switzerland. Kantor's Museum of Avant-Garde Mastery in Moscow features the world’s largest collection of 20th century avant-garde art, according to its website.
His cash holdings are calculated using an analysis of dividends, insider transactions, personal investments, taxes and market performance.
Vyacheslav Kantor was born in 1953 in Moscow. He graduated with a degree in engineering from Moscow Aviation Institute in 1976, and began working at one of institute's branches. He became general director of Intelmas, a Soviet-American joint venture, which was specializing in installation of computer networks at Soviet enterprises, in 1989.
He later received a contract to carry out an environmental impact assessment at the Azot chemical plant in Velikiy Novgorod. The company was privatized in 1993, and Kantor bought a 30 percent stake in a fertilizer maker. In subsequent years he increased his stake by buying workers' shares that were distributed by the post-Soviet Russian government as part of a program aimed at bringing private ownership to Russia.
The billionaire retains a controlling stake in Acron, the name given to the former Azot chemical plant.
Kantor lives in London with his wife and children.