Farkhad Temurovich Akhmedov (Russian: Фархад Тимурович Ахмедов, Azerbaijani: Fərhad Teymur oğlu Əhmədov; born 15 September 1952) is a Russian businessman of Azerbaijani origin.
Background
Akhmedov was born in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR in 1955 to Azerbaijani parents – Teymur and Asadi. He was a young schoolboy when his father was sentenced to death for state-property embezzlement in a debauched case in the USSR by the KGB. He then fled to Moscow at the age of 15 with 48 rubles, studied to be a mechanic; spent several years in the Navy and graduated from the Moscow Veterinary Academy’s Commodity Research & Animal Commodities department as a specialist in fur. He was the first Azeri businessman to move to London in the 1980s, and then eventually began selling machinery to oil and gas companies all over the world and later moved into production himself.
Akhmedov is known to have many close friends made in the early 1980s such as the late Boris Berezovsky, Pyotr Aven, Roman Abramovich and Eugene Shvidler. There are many photos of them in the 1990s and 2000s holidaying together with their families in the French Riviera, and notably their yachts being positioned nearby regularly.
He is quiet about his private life and maintains a low profile. He enjoys spending time outdoors and entertaining guests from all over the world at his estate in the countryside of Azerbaijan.
Business
Akhmedov maintains business interests in Russia, and not Azerbaijan. He states his only business in Azerbaijan is a hobby, being the pomegranate juice producer that his father, Teymur started in 1969.
Since 1990, Akhmedov has been extensively involved in charities with his own foundation, donating over $150 million to worthy causes.
Northgas
Starting in 1993, Akhmedov built up shares in Northgas, an oil & gas company in Siberia which has a field in the Arctic Circle, with one of the largest gas reserves in the world according to DeGolyer & MacNaughton. He bought his first stake in Northgas from Bechtel, the largest engineering firm in the USA.
In 2005, threatened with the loss of his license by the Russian state, Akhmedov agreed to give Gazprom 51% of his shares, in return for the Russian state not pursuing any claims against Akhmedov.
In 2012 Akhmedov threatened to claim against the Russian State and Gazprom in the London Court of International Arbitrage for not abiding in accordance with the settlement agreement dated 2005, signed by then CEO of Gazprom, now Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, by increasing tariffs on gas production and reducing the quotas that Northgas may have produced.
Gazprom, threatened with the potential claim and with the highest-official signature from the Prime Minister of Russia, decided to withdraw from placing the highest tariff on gas production and increased the quotas for Northgas.
As to date, Farkhad Akhmedov has now sold his 49% remaining stake to Novatek in 2012 for an undisclosed and confidential sum – reports ranging from $1.8 – $5 billion USD. The fair valuation for 100% of Northgas in 2012 according to reserve reports would be over $9.8 billion USD.
Northgas was the most efficient natural gas company in Russia under Akhmedov’s leadership, at one time outputting up to 43% of Gazprom’s gas with only 350 employees. Northgas’ achievements in the gas sector propel the case for privatization in Russia.
- Farkhad Akhmedov got his start selling Russian sables at the London commodity exchange.
- In 1987 he founded Tansley Trading, which supplied equipment to Russian gas producers.
- Six years later, he became a minority shareholder in Nortgas, an oil and gas company in Siberia.
- In 1998 he bought out the 44% stake of another investor, Bechtel Energy, and became chairman.
- In 2012 he sold that stake for $1.4 billion.
- In 2016, a U.K. High Court judge ordered Akhmedov to pay his ex-wife £454 million, but he refused.
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