Alisher Usmanov sells 10 percent of shares of the holding company

The richest Russian, Alisher Usmanov, sold a 10 percent stake to his holding company partners, fulfilling his promise to reward management. In addition, the sale of shares will provide a new inflow of capital for use in areas that Usmanov considers more promising in the future.

Usmanov will retain 48 percent of the voting shares of USM Holdings, through which he controls almost all of his assets. 10 percent of the shares are currently acquired by executives including USM Chief Executive Officer Ivan Streshinsky, MegaFon (MFON) CEO Ivan Tavrin and USM Directors.

Usmanov, 60, has a fortune estimated at $ 17 billion according to the Billionaires Index. He is also an investor in MegaFon, a Russian mobile operator. Usmanov has invested in technology and Internet companies such as Facebook Inc (FB) and Apple Corporation, and he also controls about 30 percent of Arsenal Football Club.

The deal does not signal that Usmanov will pay less attention to USM's business, as he remains the largest and most influential shareholder. Usmanov can receive at least $ 2 billion. The billionaire plans to inject proceeds into the new fund as he looks at the development and growth of his international investment portfolio. The fund will focus on investment areas in which Usmanov sees potential for future development, a USM spokesman said without going into details.

Usmanov's first investments focused on the metals and mining industry, namely the purchase of shares in the Oskol electrometallurgical plant, known as OEMK, which he bought in the late 1990s. The facility is located 600 km southwest of Moscow and is the seventh largest steel plant in Russia. By founding the group with the OEMK acquisition, Usmanov has made USM one of the largest and most successful diversified international holding companies in the past two decades.