As The Bell found out, his new business is the production and sale of marijuana in the USA. Together with his partner, renowned financier Boris Jordan, Bloch invested in a company that now costs $ 4.5 billion.

Multimillionaire on the "grass"

The fact that Bloch - a major shareholder of the American marijuana producer Curaleaf Holdings Inc., The Bell found out last fall. At that time, Curaleaf raised $ 400 million during the IPO, valuing at $ 4 billion. From the prospectus for placement, the company had only two major shareholders - Bloch (28%) and founder of Renaissance Insurance, financier Boris Jordan (31%).

Curaleaf (the slogan "Live well!") Is one of the few vertically integrated manufacturers of medical and recreational marijuana in the United States. The company has its own production from the field to pharmacies and a clear growth strategy in the most populated states of the United States, where marijuana is legalized. In early April, Curaleaf bought the California-based Eureka, entrenched in the largest state. On this news and the annual report, the company's stock price rose above the IPO, and its capitalization reached $ 4.5 billion. Now Bloch’s share is worth about $ 1.25 billion.

Andrei Blokh was one of Roman Abramovich’s few comrades-in-arms: in the late 1990s he was engaged in his oil business, and in 1998 he headed Sibneft. After the sale of Sibneft, Bloch took up Abramovich’s assets in the food industry, collecting Planet Management from disparate enterprises, and then, together with his partner, bought the dairy part of this business, Unimilk Company. For several years, the company under their leadership became the second dairy producer in the country after Wimm-Bill-Dann. In 2010, Unimilk announced a merger with the Danone division in Russia; until 2016, Bloch remained a major shareholder of the combined company.

Bloch does not give an interview, however, his partner Jordan told Bloomberg that the situation on the marijuana market in the US is “exactly like in the 1990s Russia: the industry is infancy and needs to be built from scratch, including legislation”. Companies and investors are eager to rush to a new market - for example, the producer Marlboro paid $ 1.8 billion to reach it. This also applies to the use of marijuana products.

Who is new

Of the eight newcomers to the Forbes list in Russia, there have never been only two multimillionaires - co-founder of Revolut, a Fintech startup Revolut, and Nikolai Gonsky, the son of Georgy Gens, the software development company Lanit who died last year, Philip Gens. Details on the history of Revolut can be read here.

Who upstairs

There are almost no surprises at the top of the Russian list from year to year, unless one of the businessmen falls under sanctions. Now in the first place after the successful year of the company, the founder of Novatek, Leonid Mikhelson, with $ 24 billion, the second - Vladimir Lisin (NLMK), the third - the president of Lukoil, Vagit Alekperov.

In total, the top 200 Russian rich 100 dollar billionaires and 100 multimillionaires with a total fortune of $ 496 billion

Who else

On the eve of Bloomberg wrote that in the list of Russian billionaires according to his version there are two remarkable newcomers - programmers from Vologda, Igor and Dmitry Bukhmany. They made a fortune from scratch on games, moving their Playrix to the top of the world ranking of publishers of mobile games for iOS and Google Play by revenue.