Oil tycoon’s wife wins £453m in historic divorce payout

BRITAIN: A Russian-born billionaire must pay his estranged wife £453 million (NZ$853m) in what is believed to be the biggest courtordered divorce award in Britain.

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave described the former wife as a ‘‘hands-on’’ mother who made an equal contribution to the 20-year marriage.

He awarded the woman 41.5 per cent of the ‘‘marital assets’’ of just over £1 billion after a private hearing in the High Court’s family division in London yesterday.

The judge said that the wife, 44, who was born in eastern Europe, had been a ‘‘housewife and a mother throughout the marriage’’.

The man, 61, worked in London as an oil and gas trader. Nearly five years ago he sold his shares in a Russian company for US$1.3 billion (NZ$1.9b).

The wife, who now lives in the former matrimonial home in Surrey, brought up the couple’s two boys without the assistance of a nanny, as well as helping to care for the husband’s child from his first marriage, the judge said.

David Lister, a family partner at Mishcon de Reya, said: ‘‘I believe this is the biggest award the courts have made and shows how generous the courts are in this country dealing with international cases of this kind. It confirms London’s position as the divorce capital of the world.’’

John Hemming, a former Liberal Democrat MP who campaigns for improvements in family justice, said the process had not been transparent.

The couple remained anonymous in line with their wishes but journalists should have been given the chance to make arguments for naming the billionaire, Hemming said.

‘‘Open justice is the fundamental underlying principle of the British justice system. The British taxpayer pays the judge’s wages and the wages of the court staff. Surely members of the public have a right to know.’’

The husband in the divorce case was born in the Caucasus. He met his wife-to-be in 1989 while she was studying in Moscow and they married there in 1993 before moving to London in the same year. Both were given indefinite leave to stay in the UK and the woman became a British citizen more than 15 years ago. Their two children are now grown up.

In the previous record judgment in the British courts Jamie Cooper-Hohn, wife of the financier Sir Chris Hohn, was awarded more than £330m in 2014. There are thought to have been bigger settlements between divorcing couples who did not go to court.

The wife’s legal team was led by Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia, who is widely known for representing the Duke of York and Sir Paul McCartney. The husband was not represented and failed to attend any hearings, in breach of various orders.

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said that he had made a ‘‘sudden decision . . . to no longer to contest proceedings’’ for reasons that were unclear. – The Times