Abramovich drops on world’s richest amid Chelsea sell off

Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich, has lost his spot on the world’s richest list amid talks of the Russian selling his stake in the English Premier League club, Chelsea, over the Ukraine war.

Abramovich had acquired Fordstam Limited, Chelsea’s parent company, in 2003 for £140 million, but 19-years after, the billionaire is set to sell the club for around £4 billion, after pumping about £1 billion investment to make the EPL side two-times champions of Europe and World, including winning five Premiership trophies.

During his time, Abramovich grew Chelsea’s market value to about $3.2 billion and £2.4 billion according to Forbes, but his tenure as owner is coming to an end due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by President Vladimir Putin.

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Abramovich’s “father-son” relationship with Putin is costing the billionaire his investments, and this is tanking his networth according to Forbes Billionaires Index.

Within five days of calls for the Russian billionaire to quit his role in Chelsea, his networth fell 6.76%, with Abramovich dropping to 167th position on the world’s richest list from 146th spot.

This was as a result of his fortune dwindling from $13.3 billion, down to $12.4 billion, reflecting the high rate his investments are depleting. In the last 24hours, Abramovich had lost N100.64 billion ($242 million).

Within the last two decades, Abramovich had investments across oil, steel and football, but his business is down to one, which is the steel giant Evraz, Norilsk Nickel, having sold his oil stake in Sibneft to state-owned gas titan Gazprom for $13 billion in 2005.