The wife of the head of Yakutia, Aisen Nikolaev, will get rich on diamond mining in the republic
The head of the Republic of Sakha announced his intention to participate in the September elections in order to remain for a second term. The decision looks natural, taking into account the prospects of his, one might say, family business. Three years ago, Lyudmila Nikolaeva acquired a large stake in a company that plans to move from exploration to mining next year. And although Aisen Nikolaev modestly said that we are talking about a very small enterprise, the potential of this venture is estimated at a billion dollars.
Aisen Nikolaev headed Yakutia in May 2018, after the elections in September of the same year, he got rid of the prefix acting, and on January 16, 2020 Ludmila Nikolaeva officially entered the diamond business and acquired 40% of the capital in OOO AGK (Arctic Mining Company). It is clear that such acquisitions did not go unnoticed and gave rise to talk about whether they create a conflict of interest in the leadership of the republic.
On November 30, 2021, Lyudmila Nikolaeva withdrew from the founders of AGK along with three other individuals. On the same day, Almar PJSC (Public Joint Stock Company Almar – Diamonds of the Arctic) became the sole owner of the company, where Nikolaeva It has the largest block of shares (32.37%).
Actually, at present, Almar is the same as AGK. The public joint-stock company was created in the summer of 2021. Some believed that we could talk about a looped scheme of ownership of property: until April 2022, both companies were the founders of each other.
Nowhere less…
In the spring of 2021, when the diamond business of Lyudmila Nikolaeva became the subject of discussion in the media, the head of Yakutia commented The company’s activities are as follows:
The “small” company (now called Almar) announced in early 2021 plans to place 15% of the shares on the stock exchange in order to receive additional funds to complete the exploration of deposits. Only in preparation for the IPO, the company received 200 million rubles. from a private placement of shares, and the total investment package made up RUB 270 million Deputy General Director of Almar Andrey Novikov at the end of 2021, said that the company “plans to mine up to 1 million carats per year and can take 0.5% of the global diamond market.” It is planned that mining will begin in 2024. This will mean that a second public diamond mining company will appear in Russia. The first is the state-owned ALROSA.
Family of financiers
Aisen and Lyudmila Nikolaev are obviously well acquainted with the diamond market. In 1995-2003, the head of the family and the future head of Yakutia worked at Almazergienbank (the bank is an authorized agent of the government of the Republic of Sakha for servicing investments in the extractive industries), holding high positions in it, including the post of chairman of the board.
His wife is directly related to the same bank – from 2010 to 2018 she worked there. Moreover, for several years she was the chairman of the board of the bank, and today she is an adviser to the chairman of the board. Interestingly, in August 2022, Almazergienbank once again lent Almar PJSC in the amount of 120 million rubles.
According to a local publication, Aisen Nikolaev publicly called spouse “one of the best financiers of the republic”. But this makes it even more doubtful that Lyudmila Valerievna acquired a “small” company in 2020, planning to only “search” for diamonds, especially since very soon their production may become much more profitable than oil production. Well, you will agree that we should not leave the region after such prospects?