What is Sir Leonard Blavatnik’s net worth?
▲ £29.246 billion
£28.625 billion in 2023
The 66-year-old billionaire, born to a Jewish family in Soviet-era Ukraine, who has both British and American citizenship, made news in December when he announced he was withholding donations to Harvard. His decision followed the the failure of Claudine Gay, the university’s president at the time, to declare that calls on campus for genocide against Jewish students violated campus codes of conduct. The Harvard Business School graduate has a history of giving generously to the Ivy League school, as well as supporting Jewish causes. Harvard Medical School includes a Blavatnik Institute. Sources close to Blavatnik say he is leaving open the door for future donations. “He wants Harvard to do better. He’s not trying to step away or abandon the place,” one says.
Blavatnik built his fortune in Russia but sold the last of his assets there in 2013. Born in Odessa when Ukraine was under Soviet control, he moved to a city north of Moscow as a child. At university in the Russian capital he met his former business partner and fellow Ukrainian Viktor Vekselberg, 67, who is now under western sanctions. During the 1980s they built up then offloaded large stakes in Russia’s largest aluminium company and a leading oil company.
Blavatnik settled in the US, where he studied at Harvard and Columbia University. In 1986 he founded his investment operation Access Industries in New York. It has holdings worth $35 billion (£29.2 billion) in 30 countries, including a majority stake in Warner Music. Warner, which is partly listed, is now worth more than $17 billion. The shares are up by about 20 per cent since last year’s Rich List and largely explain the jump in his wealth this year. Access also owns 20.5 per cent of LyondellBasell, a publicly traded chemicals manufacturer and the world’s largest producer of polypropylene, which is today worth almost $30 billion. Blavatnik’s bet on Lyondell was described by Forbes as “the greatest deal in Wall Street history”.
Blavatnik has been propelled into the limelight lately, not just because of his decision to withhold donations to his alma mater. His ownership of Warner and film interests has meant he has been photographed with Rita Ora and Coldplay’s Chris Martin, and he was on stage at the Oscars in February. He co-produced The Zone of Interest, which was named best international film at the awards. It focuses on the life of the Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife, Hedwig, who lived with their family in a home next to the concentration camp. Blavatnik stood alongside Jonathan Glazer, the film’s director, as Glazer accepted the award and made much-discussed remarks about the conflict in the Middle East.
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Blavatnik is planning to invest hundreds of millions of pounds buying up media businesses and producing new TV shows, films and theatre in coming years. Danny Cohen, the former director of the BBC’s TV output who is now president of Access Entertainment, says the group will consider large acquisitions in Hollywood. “We’ll spend a few hundred million if we can find the right things,” Cohen recently told the Financial Times. Access recently increased its investment in A24, the production house behind the hit film Everything Everywhere All at Once and the recent Civil War. Access is also seeking to invest more in South Korea as the media and music scene there continues to grow fast.
DAZN Group Ltd, the sports streaming platform backed by Blavatnik, has invested billions in premium sports rights for competitions such as Serie A football in Italy. It is now the second-largest football broadcaster in Europe after Sky. DAZN has racked up large losses but now, with losses narrowing, it plans to bid for French football rights for the first time, in an auction in which the local league is seeking at least €800 million a year.
The company, which is exploring ways to raise fresh funding — as much as $1 billion — has recently deepened its commercial ties with Saudi Arabia, whose crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has been spending heavily on sporting assets, notably golf, as part of his Vision 2030 project to diversify his nation’s economy. DAZN is a key broadcaster for the Saudi Pro Football League, which has invested billions of pounds to woo stars, notably Cristiano Ronaldo. Last month it agreed an exclusive deal to screen the “Riyadh Season” series of boxing matches including a fight with the British former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
Blavatnik, who was knighted by Elizabeth II in 2017 for his services to philanthropy, has four children with his American wife, Emily Appelson. As well as their London home, they have properties in New York worth several hundred million dollars. He also owns hotels in Hollywood and Miami Beach, and the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat on the Côte d’Azur in France, plus the Ocean Club luxury resort in the Bahamas. Blavatnik spent £45 million on acquiring the Theatre Royal Haymarket in the West End of London and has given money to a range of cultural causes, including £50 million to Tate Modern and £10 million to the Courtauld Institute of Art.
View the full list to see where money was made and lost in the last year
