Tycoon’s fortunes slip after reported split with Putin daughter
WHEN 32-year-old businessman Kirill Shamalov wed Vladimir Putin’s daughter in 2013, he suddenly found his fortunes on the rise – to the tune of $2billion in shares and a lucrative post at a petrochemical giant.
But amid rumours of his separation from Katerina Tikhonova, Mr Shamalov appears to have been cast out of favour, demoted from his position as deputy chief executive at Sibur and his wealth halved.
News of the couple’s separation was reported by Bloomberg on Thursday, citing four unidentified sources familiar with the situation.
Vedomosti, a respected Russian business newspaper, later published a screenshot of a Facebook post showing Shamalov with Zhanna Volkova, a Moscow-born London socialite.
The December 2017 post on Mr Shamalov’s private Facebook page features a photo taken with Ms Volkova, and a caption that reads “I love you”.
Neither Mr Shamalov’s wedding to Ms Tikhonova, nor their reported separation, have been publicly confirmed. The lives of Katerina and Marina, Putin’s two daughters, are one of the biggest off-limits topics in the Russian media. Despite several reports claiming to have identified Ms Tikhonova, a professional acrobatic rock’n’roll dancer, as Putin’s daughter, the Kremlin has never confirmed.
Bloomberg’s sources refused to say whether the couple are legally divorced. However, Mr Shamalov’s fortunes – which soared to more than $2billion after his reported, but unconfirmed, wedding – have taken a hit.
In April of last year, Mr Shamalov sold off his 21.3 per cent share in Sibur. The circumstances surrounding the sale were never disclosed, Bloomberg reported, but one source said Mr Shamalov made “zero” off the transaction.
Mr Shamalov was promoted to deputy chief executive officer at Sibur in 2012, and was given a 4.3 per cent share in the company by its main owners.
In 2014, aged 32, he purchased an additional 17 per cent share with a loan from the state-owned Gazprombank.
But the wealth accumulated from his rise through the ranks of Sibur was described by one source as a privilege that came from membership in Russia’s first family. Three sources said those ownership privileges ended with the marriage.
A source close to Mr Shamalov told Bloomberg that his losses had nothing to do with his relationship to the Putin family. According to this source, his purchase of 17 per cent of Sibur was part of a move he made with his father. The two “barely broke even” when the investment didn’t go as planned, the source said.
Mr Shamalov declined to comment. Requests for comments from Ms Tikhonova and the Kremlin went unanswered. Regardless of the cause for Mr Shamalov’s decline in fortune, he remains among Russia’s wealthy business elite. According to Bloomberg, his wealth is valued at $800million.
Without a prenuptial agreement, Russian law entitles spouses to half of all assets gained during marriage.