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Roman Abramovich's 19-year-old son buys $48m dollar oilfield
Arkadiy Abramovich, an intern at a London bank, clinches his first major deal to buy CenGeo
AN INTERN at a London investment bank has just bought a huge Siberian oilfield for $46m. This is less strange than it seems: Arkadiy Abramovich, 19, is the son of Russian oligarch and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich.
Abramovich junior (pictured above left) has a controlling stake in the cash-shell Zoltav through his ARA investment vehicle, reports the Daily Telegraph. He used it to clinch his first oil deal, snapping up CenGeo Holdings for $26m.
CenGeo owns the Koltogor oil discovery in western Siberia, an oil-rich site which has not yet been exploited. It is close to Russia's largest producing field, Samotlor, and is estimated to hold more than 100 million barrels of oil.
ARA has also pledged to invest a further $20m in the company in return for new shares, making the total cost of the purchase $46m.
Zoltav says the deal marks its transition from an investing company into an operational exploration and oil production business. Chairman Symon Drake-Brockman said: "This is an excellent first acquisition for Zoltav and will allow the company to build an operational management team for future acquisitions in the sector.
"We believe the acquisition represents extremely good value for shareholders and delivers a sizeable appraisal asset with near-term production potential."
Arkadiy's purchase comes eight years after Abramovich Snr cashed in his Russian oil empire for $13bn when he sold his majority stake in Sibneft.
In 2010, it was widely rumoured that Arkadiy was considering buying Danish football team Copenhagen FC, at the time champions of the national league. Nothing ever came of the rumours – Arkadiy kept his powder dry. ·
