Tui major shareholder
Oligarch Mordashov fears for the villa and yacht – now his wife should save the Tui shares
Alexey Mordashov is one of the richest Russians
© Peter Kovalev/ / Picture Alliance
The luxury yacht is fixed, as is the Sardinia villa. Now oligarch Alexei Mordashov is trying to save his shares in the Tui travel group with a trick. Can he get away with it?
The cozy days under the Italian sun are over for Alexej Mordashov. After the Russian oligarch’s luxury yacht was arrested in the port of Imperia at the beginning of March, the same fate befell Mordashov’s villa in Sardinia. The luxury property in the port city of Portisco is worth 105 million euros, as announced by Italian authorities on Friday evening. The yacht “Lady M” is said to be worth 65 million euros.
For the time being, Mordashov cannot access these assets confiscated by the Italian financial police. Because the extremely wealthy entrepreneur is on the EU’s list of sanctions, with which Russian oligarchs are being punished for Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine. For the German authorities, however, access to Mordashov’s assets is more complicated, because the businessman is trying to circumvent the sanctions with a trick.
Mordashov is known in Germany as the main shareholder of the Tui travel group, of which he held 34 percent of the shares. But as it now turns out, Mordashov quickly sold a large part of his Tui shares on February 28 – a few hours before the sanctions came into force. And the beneficiary in a complicated financial deal is apparently none other than a certain Marina Mordashova, the oligarch’s wife.
Who controls Tui now?
Mordashova is a shareholder behind a company called Ondero, which took over Mordashov’s company Unifirm and with it 29.87 percent of Mordashov’s Tui shares. Ondero resides in the Virgin Islands, a relevant tax haven in the Caribbean, while Unifirm is based in Cyprus. Since the Tui stake taken over is still just under 30 percent, Ondero did not have to make a mandatory offer to the other Tui shareholders. Mordashov transferred the remaining 4.1 percent to his Russian Severgroup. Tui only found out afterwards that Mordashova was behind Ondero. Mordashov could maintain influence on Tui through the triangle deal with his wife.
Alexei Mordashov is the head of the Severstal steel company and one of the richest Russians in general. In 2021, his fortune was estimated at $29 billion, according to Forbes magazine. The EU put him on the sanctions list for his “links to Russian decision-makers.” Bank Rossiya, in which he holds shares, is the personal bank of high-ranking officials. He also did wind power business on the occupied Crimean Peninsula and owned shares in television stations “that actively support the Russian government’s policy of destabilizing Ukraine.” Mordashov, on the other hand, had declared that he had “absolutely nothing to do” with the emergence of “the current geopolitical tensions”. He was just a businessman and had never been close to politics.
It is unclear whether Mordashov will actually get through with his Tui trick. According to Tui, the Federal Ministry of Economics is currently checking whether Mordashov has unlawfully avoided the sanctions. For the German state, the matter is doubly spicy: After all, it supported the world’s largest tourism group in the corona crisis with an aid loan worth billions. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the public prosecutor’s office in Hanover is also examining whether there is an initial suspicion of a crime.
However, Mordashov clearly has a chance of slipping through the gaps in the sanctions network. Lothar Harings, chairman of the European Forum for Foreign Trade, told the Handelsblatt: “The wife is not automatically subject to the restrictions, since according to German and European legal understanding there is no family liability.” In any case, little help can be expected from the new Tui owner Ondera. The company has not even confirmed that Mordashova is the oligarch’s wife.