Early career Soon after his university graduation in 1989, Kerimov took a job as an economist at the Eltav electrical plant in
Makhachkala, the capital of
Dagestan. The
state-controlled plant supplied
transistors and
semi-conductors to
television-makers, while also producing
diodes,
microchips and
halogen lamps. Kerimov was paid 150
roubles (approximately $250
dollars) a month and he and his wife lived in a worker's hostel attached to the plant, where they shared one room of a two-room flat. Eventually, Kerimov rose to the rank of
Deputy Director General at Eltav and began to dabble in investing alongside during the
fall of the Soviet Union. In 1995, Kerimov was appointed to head the banking and trading company Soyuz-Finans, and by 1997, Kerimov had built a 50% stake in
Vnukovo Airlines and used his leverage to take over Fedprombank, buying out his partners' shares. By 2000, he had increased his stake of Nafta Moskva to 100%. Kerimov undertook a mass restructuring of the company, selling off all of the oil-related aspects and creating an investment and
holding company. Nafta's investments in the mid-2000s included purchase of the business center Smolensky Passazh and AvtoBank.
Gazprom and Sberbank investments In 2003, Kerimov managed to secure a $43 million loan from the state-owned
Vnesheconombank, which he invested in the oil and gas company
Gazprom. In 2004
Sberbank, now the largest bank in Russia and Eastern Europe, provided Kerimov with a loan of $3.2 billion, which was later repaid, and these funds were also invested in equities. By 2008, Kerimov had amassed a 5% stake in Gazprom, a 6% stake in Sberbank, along with an estimated fortune of $17.5 billion, making him the 36th richest man in the world.
Polymetal In November 2005, Kerimov's Nafta Moskva acquired
JSC Polymetal, one of Russia's largest gold and silver mining companies. In 2007, he took the company public on the
London Stock Exchange, then sold 70% of his shares in 2008 before gold would go on to climb to an all-time high in 2011. In 2008, Kerimov sold control over Polymetal.
Role in the 2008 financial crisis As markets around the world began to tighten in 2007, Kerimov and his associates expected that
Russia would suffer more than the West from the
2008 financial crisis. Though neither Kerimov nor the Western banks have disclosed the exact size of his investment, it was sizeable enough for Kerimov to receive a call from the
United States Treasury during the darkest days of the economic crisis imploring the
Russian oligarch not to sell his stakes.
Polyus Gold Following his losses during the
2008 financial crisis, Kerimov shifted his investment strategy to buying stakes large enough to influence the strategies of the companies he invests in. In 2009, Nafta Moskva bought a $1.3 billion stake (37% stake) in OAO
Polyus Gold,
Russia's largest
gold producer, from
Vladimir Potanin. Later the stake was increased up to 40.2%. In 2012 the company held an IPO on the London Stock Exchange. In 2015 Kerimov's share in Polyus Gold was transferred to his son,
Said.
Property developer PIK Group In the spring of 2009, shareholders of Russia's construction giant
PIK Group sold 25% of their company's shares to Kerimov. PIK required extra funding after their debt level reached $1.98 billion, and the value of their capital fell by more than 40 times to $279.9 million. Nafta Moskva later increased its stake in PIK Group to 38.3%. In December 2013 Kerimov sold his shares to property investor
Sergei Gordeev and businessman
Alexander Mamut, who owns a stake in precious metals miner Polymetal.
Uralkali In June 2010, Kerimov and his partners
Alexander Nesis and
Filaret Galchev together paid
Dmitry Rybolovlev an estimated $5.3 billion for a 53% stake in Russian
potash giant
Uralkali, which, together with Belaruskali, at the time made up the duopoly that controlled 70% of the global potash market: the Belarusian Potash Company (BPC). Kerimov secured substantial loans from Russia's
VTB bank for the
Uralkali takeover. Two weeks after Uralkali's July announcement, Belarusian prime minister
Mikhail Myasnikovich responded by inviting Kerimov and the Uralkali managers to Minsk to discuss the current situation. Uralkali's then-CEO attended in Kerimov's place and was arrested by state security forces and charged with "
abuse of power". In the meantime, Belarus also opened a criminal investigation into other Uralkali employees and its main shareholder Suleyman Kerimov. Baumgertner was held in a Belarusian KGB jail until a plan to change ownership of Uralkali was announced, and Belarus then extradited Baumgertner to Russia. Belarus put Kerimov on the national wanted list, and also requested
Interpol to publish a
Red Notice for him. Interpol clarified later that no Red Notice had been issued and that the request was political in nature. The Belarusian authorities later withdrew the case against Kerimov and closed the criminal investigation. By December 2013, Kerimov sold 21.75% of Uralkali shares to
Mikhail Prokhorov for US$3.7 billion and 19,99% (for approximately US$2.9 billion) to Uralchem.
Media portrayal of business style Forbes magazine describes Kerimov as one of the most private Russian billionaires, who has not given a single interview over 20 years in business. Moscow Times quoted a former deputy editor of
Forbes Russia Kirill Vishnepolsky as describing Kerimov as a "Russian Warren Buffett" for a similarly astute investment style. Kerimov reportedly made extensive use of leverage for his investments, according to financiers and bankers active in Russia. == Other investments ==