The owner of Severstal Alexei Mordashov bypassed Leonid Mikhelson in the Forbes Real Time rating, now his fortune is estimated at $ 16.8 billion. The state of Mikhelson at the moment is $ 16.2 billion, which is $ 2.2 billion less than in the rating of 2017, When it was estimated at $ 18.4 billion.

Mordashov's rise was fueled not so much by the growth in the value of his assets, but rather by a significant reduction in the evaluation of Mikhelson's condition due to the fall in Novatek shares (the billionaire owns 24.76% of the company's shares). As of the date of the annual rating of billionaires, February 17, 2017, Novatek shares traded at 760 rubles ($ 13.3) apiece, and on July 31 - 606 rubles ($ 10.2).

The main owner of NLMK Vladimir Lisin still occupies the third line - the state of the businessman has not changed, Forbes estimates it at $ 16.1 bn. The price for the shares of Lisin's main asset has not changed since February 17 - on February 17, 2017 it was 123 rubles ($ 2, 15) apiece, July 31, 2017 - 125 rubles ($ 2.1).

It should be noted that the gap between Michelson and Lisin reduces, which means that the owner of the Novolipetsk plant may soon move to the second line. The reason for this - including in the growth of quotations of metallurgical companies in recent times. Nevertheless, as the head of the investment department of Raiffeisen Capital Vladimir Vedeneev told Forbes, this is a short-term trend.

According to him, the shares of companies in this sector are getting more expensive against the background of the release of optimistic data on the Chinese economy (it grew in the second quarter of 2017 instead of the projected 6.9%), which sparked a surge of interest in the iron and steel industry. The expert noted that both Severstal and NLMK demonstrate a rapid growth in financial performance, and generously share the last years with shareholders dividends - more than 10% in annual terms, which is very attractive. In his view, the steel market does not look deficit, so further price increases are under big question.

Mordashov is the majority shareholder in the steel company Severstal. For 19 years, he served as CEO of the company, but in 2015, he left. The businessman also owns a stake in the TUI Group, the world's largest travel company, 98.37% of the gold mining company Nord Gold and 100% of the "Power Machines".

It was Mordashov who became the first businessman to appear on the cover of the first issue of the Russian Forbes, released in April 2004. At the same time in the "Golden Hundred" Forbes Mordashov took the ninth place that year, the first he ever since never got, but three times was the second. This year Forbes estimated Mordashov's fortune at $ 17.5 billion.