In 1986, Blavatnik founded the holding company,
Access Industries. controls 21% of
LyondellBasell, the world's largest producer of
polypropylene.
Natural resources sector After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Blavatnik used Access Industries to buy up former state assets in Russia that were privatized by the government, particularly accumulating shares in aluminum smelters to make his wealth. One of his investments, Sual, invested in regional electricity generating stations, which it used to supply power to its energy-intensive aluminum businesses. Sual later became part of
United Company Rusal, the world's largest aluminum producer. Blavatnik was a board member of Rusal from 2007 to 2016. AAR bought 40% of struggling oil producer Tyumen Oil (TNK), one of few remaining state-owned oil companies, for $800 million. In 1999, TNK acquired Sidanko's best assets via bankruptcy proceedings. In 2013, the Russian oil company
Rosneft paid AAR $28 billion in cash for its 50% stake in TNK-BP. AAR's original investment had been $8 billion of assets, and up to that point, AAR had taken $19 billion in dividends from the joint venture. In 1999, Blavatnik's TNK company obtained Chernogorneft at auction for at $180 million, though the company had produced $1.2 billion worth of oil the year before.
Petrochemicals and oil In August 2005, Access Industries bought petrochemicals and plastics manufacturer
Basell Polyolefins from
Royal Dutch Shell and
BASF for $5.7 billion. On December 20, 2007, Basell completed its acquisition of the
Lyondell Chemical Company for an enterprise value of approximately $19 billion. The resulting company,
LyondellBasell Industries became the world's eighth largest chemical company based on net sales. On January 6, 2009, the U.S. operations of LyondellBasell Industries filed for bankruptcy. On April 30, 2010, LyondellBasell emerged from
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a significantly improved financial position. As part of its exit financing, LyondellBasell raised $3.25 billion of first-priority debt, as well as $2.8 billion through the rights offering jointly underwritten by Access Industries,
Apollo Management, and
Ares Management.
Entertainment In early 2010, Access Industries was reported as one of a handful of bidders for
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. On May 6, 2011,
Warner Music Group announced its sale to Access for US$3.3 billion. On July 20, 2011, an Access affiliate acquired Warner Music Group for $3.3 billion. Though WMG was the World's third largest record company and considered a "trophy asset", it was also laden with debt and struggling to find an answer to online music piracy. In May 2020, Warner Music announced it would proceed with an initial public offering that valued the company at $13.3 billion. The company listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in June 2020. At which point, Blavatnik sold $1.9 billion of shares. In 2014, Access acquired Perform Group for £702 million. In 2016, Blavatnik launched Access Entertainment, which bought
James Packer's stake in
RatPac Entertainment and a 24.9% stake in Bad Wolf in 2017. In 2017, Blavatnik was named as possible purchaser of the publisher
Time Inc.. He prepared the bid with Edgar "Ed" Bronfman Jr, the former chief executive of Warner Music. In March 2017, Bronfman and Blavatnik walked away from the deal, citing valuation issues. In April 2018, it was reported that Blavatnik was a front runner in the bidding to purchase Britain's third oldest theatre, the
Theatre Royal Haymarket. Sources reported that the bid was around £40 million. Blavatnik's Access Entertainment finalized its purchase of the Theatre Royal Haymarket in June 2018. Blavatnik also owns AI Film, the independent film and production company that backed
Lee Daniels' film
The Butler and the summer 2015 release
Mr. Holmes. He was an early investor in Rocket Internet and Beats Music, helped finance fashion designer Tory Burch, and, in 2013, paid $115 million for wireless spectrum in Norway. Blavatnik has been the owner of
DAZN Group since 2014, when Access Industries increased its stake in the company from 42.5% to 77%.
DAZN DAZN (pronounced "da zone") is a sports streaming service available in Japan, Germany, and Canada. The company is part of Perform Group, a U.K. based sports media company owned by Len Blavatnik's Access Industries. DAZN buys rights to broadcast sports including football, boxing and Formula 1 motor racing, outside of their domestic markets. In May 2018, DAZN signed an eight-year, $1 billion deal with Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing to stream fights on a new U.S. subscription service. In June 2018, DAZN paid €600 million for domestic screening rights for Italian Serie A football matches in a three-year deal. The deal was believed to involve 2.5 billion euros ($3 billion) of payments over its three-season lifespan. In October 2018, DAZN signed the largest commercial deal in history with a single athlete when they paid Mexican boxer Saul "Canelo" Alvarez $365 million for the rights to screen 11 fights. In late 2020, DAZN unveiled a slate of original documentary programming featuring global sporting icons such as Ronaldo and British boxer Anthony Joshua. In January 2025, Blavatnik acquired Australian sports broadcaster
Foxtel from
News Corp and
Telstra via DAZN in a AU$3.4 billion deal.
Telecommunications Access Industries purchased the mobile phone technology company
Acision from the IT Group Logica for £265 million in 2007. As of 2018, Access Industries owned 60% of Ice Group, Norway's third largest telecoms company.
Blavatnik Archive Blavatnik founded the Blavatnik Archive in 2005 to support primary source-based scholarship and education by preserving and disseminating materials that contribute to the study of 20th century Jewish and world history. == Controversies and disputes ==