Roman Abramovich

A £150m divorce settlement would normally impoverish most millionaires, but it was mere small change for Roman Abramovich, whose divorce from his second wife Irina, was announced in March 2007. Even after the settlement, he is still in the list's top sixty. The Russian rich list in Finans magazine, published in February 2007, before the divorce, put Abramovich's fortune at £10.7bn.

Abramovich, best known in Britain for the money he has devoted to Chelsea football Club, is of course eligible for this list courtesy of his ownership of Chelsea and the fact that he now spends more of his time in Britain at his Belgravia town house or his 440 acre Sussex estate. Yet Abramovich's background was anything but privileged. Born in a bleak industrial town just south of the Arctic Circle, he was orphaned at three, and raised by his uncle. Moving to Moscow at 14, he did his army service and then started his own business, first making cheap plastic products, later graduating to tyres.

Shrewdly, he moved into the burgeoning oil industry and teamed up with Boris Berezovsky, then the most important of the Russian tycoons. The pair bought the Sibneft oil operation in 1995, for around £120m. Berezovsky went into exile and Abramovich was left in charge of Sibneft. In October 2005, Sibneft was sold to Gazprom, the Russian natural gas monopoly. The stake held by Abramovich and his partners was worth around £7.5bn under the terms of the deal. The vast majority of that will have gone to Abramovich. In addition, Gazprom paid a special £280m dividend to the former owners in June 2006.

Yet that is not the extent of Abramovich's interests. He has another £1 bn of holdings in other areas of Russian industry such as food and pharmaceuticals. Huge dividends over the years from Sibneft and sales of stakes in his other operations, such as his aluminium holdings, adds another £2bn. This huge liquidity has given Abramovich the money for his £500m plus spending spree since acquiring Chelsea in 2003, clearing its debts and filling its team with world-class players. It also meant that Chelsea could afford to lose £140m in 2004-05 and £80m in 2005-06.

Abramovich has not forgotten his homeland, giving £200m to the Chukotka region in the Arctic Circle, where he is governor. He is also spending up to £1.5bn acquiring a stake in a leading Russian steel company with a view to becoming a rival to Lakshmi Mittal (q.v.) in that industry.

Aside from his homes in Britain and worldwide, Abramovich can also relax on three yachts with another under construction costing £200m. Even after all the spending, donations and the divorce, Abramovich should easily be worth £10.8bn.