Ilya Shcherbovich is a Russian businessman and investor. History of success

Ilya Shcherbovich is a well-known Russian investor, who has been managing his own investment company United Capital Partners for the last ten years. According to Forbes magazine's experts, its condition in 2017 is 950 million dollars. What is known about Shcherbovich's career and life?

Start

In 1991, a 17-year-old graduate of the English special school Shcherbovich left his homeland - the city of Vladimir - and came to conquer the capital. He managed to enter the prestigious Plesca, where he began to study business management.

Already in the second year, Shcherbovich, having celebrated his majority, began career path. His first place of business was the International Finance Corporation, which invests money from the World Bank in the economies of developing countries. Probably, it was there that Shcherbovich was interested in such a sphere of business as investment. Much later, in 2016, he confesses in an interview that his company United Capital Partners is not interested in managing the companies whose shares are being traded. Only investing money, pure investment business.

But it was still far from my own business. From the World Bank Shcherbovich soon moved to work in the monitoring of the stock market under the Federal Commission for the Securities Market. And in 1995, as a fifth-year student, he found a job where he stayed for the next 12 years. It was the "United Financial Group" (UFG), created by former vice-premier and finance minister of Russia Boris Fedorov and American Charles Ryan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Working in UFG

First, Shcherbovich occupied the post of head of the structuring department of financial products in UFG. In 1998, he acquired the company's first shares - and later he was to become the third largest owner of UFG after its founders Fedorov and Ryan.

In 2000, Shcherbovich's ability was assessed by Sberbank - he became a member of its Supervisory Board for a year. And in 2002, 28-year-old Shcherbovich became president of UFG. He gathered a powerful team of corporate finance specialists, ensuring UFG's status as a large and respected investment company.

Deutsche Bank

In 2003, a promising Russian investment banking company was interested in the German Deutsche Bank. The owners agreed to part with the UFG, and by 2006 the Germans had sold 100% of the company's shares. Boris Fedorov began to manage the company UFG Asset Management, which was not included in the transaction. Charles Ryan remained in the UFG until 2008, but when Fedorov died of a stroke, he was forced to take over the management of Asset Management.

Shcherbovich also directed the integration of UFG into the structure of Deutsche Bank. In 2005, the National Association of Stock Market Participants recognized Shcherbovich as the "Best Investment Banker of the Year", in 2006 Deutsche Bank was recognized as the "Best Investment Bank of Russia". And a year later Shcherbovich decided that it was time to go out of UFG to free swimming.

United Capital Partners

In 2006-2007, Shcherbovich founded and headed his own investment company UCP. Together with him, about 20 members of his team gathered at UFG. Now Shcherbovich owns 77.7% of the company's capital, and the remaining shares are distributed among six more owners.

UCP invests in stable companies with a good business plan, often undervalued by other market participants. In the sphere of investors' interests there are companies operating in various fields of the economy - from oil and gas business to Internet technologies

Interview to the newspaper Vedomosti. Ilya Shcherbovich about the greatness of the country and the capitalization of companies.

UCP Transactions

One of the most successful investments in its history UCP made in 2008, buying shares of one of Russia's leading stock exchanges - RTS. After the merger with the MICEX in 2011, the RTS became part of the largest domestic stock exchange holding "Moscow Stock Exchange". As a result, the shares were sold with a tenfold premium.

In 2010, UCP acquired 100% of Uralmash-drilling equipment, and a few months later UCP and Uralmash created Uralmash NGO Holding LLC. Today it is the largest producer of drilling equipment in Russia. Initially, the share of UCP in the holding was 65.5%, and then it grew to 75%.

In 2012, UCP began to accumulate shares and depositary receipts of PJSC "Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant" and in the following years it took 26.9% of shares. After entering the UCP, the market value of the shares of the plant increased more than threefold. The UCP share package was sold with a significant premium in 2015.

In 2013, UCP acquired 48% of the shares of the social network VKontakte. In a year and a half, assets were bought by Mail.Ru Group for 1.47 billion dollars. According to RBC, the deal brought UCP about $ 500 million. The deal turned out to be controversial and caused a number of court proceedings.

Another conflict deal was made with the shares of Transneft. UCP began to consolidate its stake in the company in 2011, and a few years later became the second largest (after the state) shareholder. In 2016, due to shareholder conflicts, legal proceedings were initiated, and in March 2017 UCP sold its shares to a group of investors with a significant premium.

Personal life of Shcherbovich

His life priorities, the financier calls family, work and fishing. On the first priority, it spreads little - it is known only that his family consists of a spouse, son and daughter. Together they are fond of traveling and sports.

But the fishing Shcherbovich long ago moved to the public sphere. He is fond of catching the largest salmon fish - taimen. The fish is caught by fly fishing - on an artificial bait with the subsequent release to freedom. Several captured Shcherbovich taimen were in the book of records of the international organization International Game Fish Association.

Since 2006, Shcherbovich owns the elite tourist and fishing base "Ponoi River" in the Murmansk region. Dmitry Medvedev, Sergey Ivanov, Jimmy Carter and Dick Cheney were among the guests of this base. However, Shcherbovich himself emphasizes that high-ranking Russians and Americans are attracted to him on the base not by personal ties, but by the unique resources of the Ponoy River. There, in contrast to the rivers of many countries of the world, large populations of wild fish still exist.

Personally, Shcherbovich also tries to pay attention to preserving the salmon population in Russia and the world. He is one of the founders of the association "Russian Salmon" and a member of the board of directors of the charitable organization Wild Salmon Center.