Elena Baturina is needlessly making herself poor
The billionaire’s hotel business in Austria and the Czech Republic collapsed, but there is still a lot left.
Elena Baturina fell out of the top 5 in the Forbes ranking of the richest Russian women. Why she was pushed aside by other billionaires and where she might be now.
How Elena Baturina vacationed in Kenya
Across the equator, surrounded by Meru oaks, camphor cinnamon and agarwood eaglewoods, Elena Baturina and her eldest daughter Elena Luzhkova sat on a designer sofa. They admired the wildlife of the Laikipia Highlands in Kenya. A few meters away there was a watering hole where buffalos and giraffes came to quench their thirst. Each day of such rest cost the rich up to ten thousand dollars. For this money, the staff of the Enasoit hotel arranged for them a truly luxurious safari. Yesterday Baturina and Luzhkova watched a family of lions from a car. Today we went on horseback to see rhinoceroses. Tomorrow we were going to fly by helicopter over the Reteti elephant sanctuary. They were accompanied around them by experienced guides, guards with weapons and African servants with trays full of exotic dishes. This is how Luzhkov’s widow spent the spring – apparently, she wanted to unwind and at least temporarily forget about her failures in business.
Why is Baturina not the richest now?
According to Forbes, Elena Baturina’s fortune decreased by one hundred million – from 1.4 to 1.3 billion dollars. In the ranking of the richest Russian women for 2023, she ended up only in sixth place, although recently she was in second, and previously in first.
The billionaire has had a lot of problems lately, and, oddly enough, they have little to do with the SVO. No country in the world has imposed sanctions on it except Ukraine. Perhaps because she has the necessary connections among Western elites. So, in 2014, she met with future US President Joe Biden, after which she transferred $3.5 million to his son’s company through her structures. And in 2016, her charity donated £138,000 to the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s Foundation.
A subsidiary of the Alfa Group consortium – its lawyers are considered great specialists in the field of corporate wars – intended to recover from Baturina the cost of a 25% stake in Inteko. This is approximately 7.5 billion rubles. Representatives of Luzhkov’s widow have already called this situation a raider attack. The scheme there is really non-trivial. In order to be able to file a claim against Baturina, a subsidiary of Alfa Group bought the rights of claim against her brother, Victor, who was declared bankrupt.
Elena Baturina’s international hotel business collapsed. She had to sell unprofitable hotels in the Austrian Tyrol and Irish Dublin. After the start of the SVO, the Quisisana Palace hotel in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, closed forever, which was bought and restored by Baturina. Elena Baturina lost tens of millions of euros on these unsuccessful investments. So far, her expenses on the construction of an elite 12-story residential complex in Limassol, Cyprus have not been recovered.
What income does Elena Baturina have left?
If we talk about Elena Baturina’s foreign businesses, she still owns a complex of office buildings in the center of Brooklyn (New York), the Austrian manufacturer of solar panels RE-Pro Group, 100 hectares of land in Hampshire with a farm and a cheese factory, 75% shares in the German membrane plant Hightex, as well as $500 million invested in commercial real estate funds to generate profits.
Luzhkov’s widow also retains business assets in her homeland. The company Auto-Vintage controlled by her owns seven thousand square meters of commercial premises in the premium business center Fusion Park on Usacheva Street in Moscow. Their cadastral value is one and a half billion rubles. Judging by the Cian portal, these premises can be rented out for 250–500 million rubles a year. But on paper, the income of Auto-vintage is much more modest – only 167 million at the end of last year. The company also owns a mansion with an area of 487 m2 on 13 acres of land in the Odintsovo holiday village “Lesnoy Gorodok”. The price is about 100 million rubles, rental will bring in up to half a million a month.
Elena Baturina’s wide-ranging enterprise Diamant, which she owns, brings in 60–70 million rubles a year. After the start of SVO, the annual income of another of its legal entities, the Cozy House company, which provides office services, soared sharply, from 67 to 94 million rubles.
Baturina sold the development company Inteko a long time ago, in 2011.
Baturina’s real estate in Russia
Through the Reserve – Asset Management company, Elena Baturina owns 20 hectares of land in the elite village of Gorki-2 on Rublyovka. Judging by satellite images, this territory contains a forest, a landscaped park, a pond, something similar to a chapel, a large building for guests, a small one for servants, a house for guards, two checkpoints and, in fact, a huge palace, where it is not a shame to receive crowned persons You can’t even tell that this is a remake. Built in the style of classicism, it is similar both to the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum and to the richest noble estates of the Russian Empire. The cadastral value of the land alone is 1.6 billion rubles, and taking into account the buildings, this palace ensemble can cost three billion.
Elena Baturina’s last Moscow residence permit was in the restored historical Apartment House of A.G. Shchennikov on 3rd Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street. We are talking about a masterpiece of architecture: the facade is decorated with bas-reliefs, the entrance group is decorated with columns. Baturina has a four-room apartment there worth up to 150 million rubles. Exactly the same apartment (same area and floor) is now being rented for 250 thousand rubles per month.
According to the old EGRN databases, in the 2000s Baturina bought 30 acres in the small village of Les, which is located in the thicket of a pine forest on Rublyovka. Soon a mansion was erected on her land. Such a dacha can cost up to 200 million rubles. Renting it out is very profitable. For example, the neighboring house was rented out for two million rubles a month.
Baturina’s real estate abroad
According to the English register, Elena Baturina and both of her daughters are citizens of Cyprus and residents of London. They live in Mayfair, one of the most expensive areas in the world, on Grosvenor street. There, Luzhkov’s widow has her own three-story townhouse with a terrace and its own courtyard. According to English realtors, this is the most expensive property in the area. Its cost is over 26 million pounds sterling.
The family of Elena Baturina lives here in London.
Elena Baturina also has a picturesque chalet in Kitzbühel, an old Austrian resort town in the Alps. The house was built right on the mountainside and fits perfectly into the local landscape. Its price is up to 20 million euros.
Elena Baturina’s youngest daughter, Olga Luzhkova, was registered in New York. She has an apartment there in Devonshire House, a classic pre-war condominium located in Manhattan in Greenwich Village. This area is considered among New Yorkers to be one of the most prestigious, bohemian and green. There is a landscaped garden and terrace on the roof of the house. Inside there are public recreation areas, a gym and playrooms for children. A professional chef and doormen are always at the disposal of residents. All apartments feature premium appliances and top-notch finishes including crown molding and oak floors. The price for the apartments is from three million dollars.