Background and career
Sir Leonard Blavatnik (Russian: Леонид Валентинович Блаватник, romanized: Leonid Valentinovich Blavatnik; born June 14, 1957) is a British-American businessman and philanthropist. As of April 2025, Forbes estimated his net worth at $26.5 billion, ranking him the 75th-richest person in the world. Blavatnik made his initial fortune, alongside other Russian oligarchs, in the privatization of state-owned aluminum and oil assets after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He owns most of Warner Music Group via his privately held Access Industries. In 2017, Blavatnik received a knighthood for services to philanthropy.
Blavatnik was born in Odessa in 1957, then in the Ukrainian SSR and part of the Soviet Union, to a Jewish family. His parents moved to Yaroslavl, a Russian city north of Moscow, when he was a child. He attended Moscow State University of Railway Engineering but did not complete his coursework due to the family's request for emigration visas. At the University of Railway Engineering, he became close friends with Viktor Vekselberg, another Ukrainian Jew, who would go on to found Renova Group. Blavatnik's family emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States of America in 1978 and, in 1981, he received a master's degree in computer science from the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1989.
In 1986, Blavatnik founded the holding company, Access Industries. The New York-based business controls 21% of LyondellBasell, the world's largest producer of polypropylene. Through Access Industries, Blavatnik owns most of Warner Music Group, and conducts most of his business operations.
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. In 1997, Blavatnik Access Industries united with Viktor Vekselberg's Renova Group and Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group, to form the company AAR (Alfa, Access, Renova). Blavatnik's key role within AAR was to act as a connection to western businesses such as BP. AAR bought 40% of struggling oil producer Tyumen Oil (TNK), one of few remaining state-owned oil companies, for $800 million. AAR outbid its competitors but reportedly paid just a quarter of the agreed sum. TNK began a series of acquisitions, focusing on the oil company Sidanko, which was part-owned by BP. In 1999, TNK acquired Sidanko's best assets via bankruptcy proceedings. BP later sued TNK in New York courts, claiming that the Sidanko assets were acquired illegally. The 1999 lawsuit was resolved in 2003 when BP acquired TNK for $8 billion, forming TNK-BP, one of the largest oil companies in Russia. The deal gave BP unprecedented access to vital Russian oil and gas. The deal also made Blavatnik, Mikhail Fridman, German Khan and Viktor Vekselberg, who controlled half of TNK-BP, billions of dollars. At the time of the purchase, Blavatnik, a U.S. citizen, was living in New York. 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. In 2022, Blavatnik sold his stake in Russian aluminum producer United Co. Rusal International PJSC, divesting his last major asset in the country according to Bloomberg News.
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.
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 2012, Access Industries made a €100 million investment in Deezer, the music streaming service. 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%.
