Alfa Group

The Alfa Group (Russian Альфа - Групп / Alfa Grupp) is one of the largest private industrial and financial groups in Russia.

The business segments of the Group are oil ( " TNK -BP " ), gas, raw and Building Materials (cement, timber, glass), lending and underwriting Banking ( " Alfa Bank", the largest private bank in Russia, founded in 1991 ), insurance ( " Alfa Strachowanije " ), retail, food processing and telecommunications.

The group was founded by Mikhail Fridman Maratowitsch ( one of the most influential business leaders in Russia and one of the Russian oligarchs ) and by Pyotr Aven. The company was born from the "Alfa- Eco", a 1988 founded by Fridman trading companies. The seat of the corporate headquarters is Moscow.

Joint Ventures

" Alfa Group " owns a share of the trading house Smirnoff, the second owned by Diageo. About the telecommunications subsidiary Altimo holds " Alfa Group " further 32.9 % of the voting rights in VimpelCom, the second largest mobile operator in Russia ( a share of 26.6 % is owned by Telenor ). The " Alfa Group " is the majority shareholder of the large supermarket chain Perekrestok and after its merger with the discount retail giant Pjatjorotschka leads " Alfa Group " the whole company.

In 2003, Fridman sold half of his stake in Tyumen Oil to BP for the equivalent of 6.15 billion U.S. dollars. The entry of BP was the largest ever foreign investment in a Russian company at all.

" Alfa Group " undertook with the entry in the amount of 3.3 billion U.S. dollars in the Turkish mobile operator Turkcell has ( 2.7 billion euros ), the biggest foreign investment by a Russian company ( the Swedish- Finnish mobile phone giant TeliaSonera 47 percent of Turkcell ). The " Alfa Group " is further provided with a blocking minority in the third largest Russian mobile phone giant, " megaphone ", jointly held by TeliaSonera holds 44 percent.