Igor Zyuzin

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Igor Vladimirovich Zyuzin (Russian: И́горь Влади́мирович Зю́зин; born May 29, 1960) is a Russian businessman. He is both Chairman of the Board of Directors and a major shareholder in the mining and steel group Mechel. Zyuzin is married and a father of two.^[1]

Zyuzin was born in Kimovsk, Tula Oblast on May 29, 1960. In 1982, he graduated from the Tula Polytechnic Institute with an honours bachelor's degree equivalent in mining engineering. He graduated from the Tula Polytechnic Institute's Graduate School in 1985, earning his Kandidat of Technical Sciences degree (PhD equivalent) in 1986. He also graduated from the Kuzbass Polytechnic Institute by correspondence with a bachelor's degree equivalent in Economics of Mining in 1992.^[2]

Zyuzin began working at Raspadskaya Mine in the Kemerovo Oblast in 1987. He began as a mining foreman and was promoted to mine section supervising foreman and acting senior process engineer in 1989. After an accident, he received disability status and was transferred to the Raspadskaya Design Bureau. He became an intermediary between the government and miners during the 1989 mining strikes^[3][4] and was appointed Deputy CEO for Marketing and Foreign Trade in 1990.^[1]

Igor Zyuzin became CEO of Kuzbasskaya Central Refinery in October 1993 and worked at the company for four years. He was Chairman of the Board of Mezhdurechensk Ugol OJSC from 1997 – 1999, and was first elected Chairman of Southern Kuzbass Coal Company OJSC in May 1999. As a key figure at Southern Kuzbass, he was appointed to the Entrepreneurship Council led by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov in 2000.^[1]

He joined the Board of Directors of Mechel OJSC (Chelyabinsk Steel Plant) in June 2001 and established the Mechel Group in 2003. Igor Zyuzin's most recent positions at Mechel included:

• Chairman of the Board Mechel Steel Group OJSC starting in January 2004.
• From December 2006 to July 2010 — CEO of Mechel OJSC.
• From July 2010 onward — Chairman of the Board of Mechel.

Zyuzin first went into business for himself in the early 1990s. He established Uglemet (the company name combines Russian words for "coal" and "metal") in 1994, which received substantial coal sale quotas.^[5] Zyuzin and his business partner Vladimir Iorikh traded coal produced by Kuzbass mines, and then began buying up stock in mining companies themselves. Yorikh was in charge of finance and sales, while Zyuzin was responsible for other business aspects. They bought Southern Kuzbass, Mezhdurechenskugol and a number of other companies in the late 1990s.^[6]

The partnership of Zyuzin and Iorikh acquired a controlling stake in Mechel OJSC for $133 million USD in 2001 and continued buying steel makers. Mechel was taken public in 2004, with Vladimir Iorikh having most of the credit for the successful IPO. Zyuzin and Iorikh retained a 47.8% equity stake each, valued at $1.1 billion USD at the time.^[7] Iorikh had sold off all of his stake by the end of 2006, selling most of it to Zyuzin, who borrowed around $1 billion USD to finance the acquisition.^[6] Mechel's February 2007 US SEC filing showed Igor Zyuzin as the beneficiary holder of 68.2% of the company's equity.^[8]

After earning a controlling steak in Mechel, Zyuzin began an aggressive, debt-financed asset acquisition spree. He spent $2.47 billion USD on acquisitions in 2007 and $2.8 billion in 2008. Despite global economic downturn in the Great Recession of 2008, Mechel's stock price rose. Throughout 2009, Zyuzin continued buying new assets, all the while requesting debt restructuring from Russian banks.^[6] According to several market experts, this high-risk strategy brought the company to the brink of bankruptcy by the end of 2013.^[9][10][11]

In the first year of his second term as Prime Minister of Russia, politician Vladimir Putin sharply criticised Zyuzin for charging reduced export prices, claiming they stood at half the domestic price. On July 24, 2008, a Russian resource mining and fabrication industry meeting was held to discuss the high domestic prices of steel, coal, and other raw materials, which Zyuzin did not attend, claiming indisposition. It is alleged that Prime Minister Putin promised to call "doctors" from the Federal Antimonopoly Service and other federal criminal investigators. A number of business news websites, newspapers and magazines claimed at the time that Putin's diatribe against Zyuzin caused a panic in the Russian stock market, triggering a market-wide sell-off which took years to recover from.^{[12][13][14][15][16]}

Despite contentions with the then Prime Minister, Mechel remained financially viable, owing partially to the support it received from outside sources.

Inversely, Putin is on record as praising Zyuzin's actions in June of 2010.^[1]

After Vladimir Putin's criticism, Igor Zyuzin took action to improve his standing and reputation with the government and government officials. In 2009, he participated in a federal effort to save the financially destitute Zlatoust Steel Plant in the Chelyabinsk Oblas province of Russia. However, the project, widely regarded as an "example of excellent social responsibility," ultimately failed. In 2013, companies controlled by Zyuzin initiated bankruptcy proceedings against the plant. Zyuzin faced renewed criticism for this from the Russian media.^[17]

Mechel disclosed in June 2009 that more than half of Zyuzin's stake in Mechel — 37.9% out of 66% — was pledged as security to bank loans.^[18][19] After this, Mechel's debt continued to grow rapidly. The company's net debt stood at $9.1 billion USD as of September 30, 2012. By the end of 2013, Zyuzin had lost most of his fortune after a steep decline in Mechel's stock price. Forbes named this loss the "fiasco of the year," estimating Zyuzin's fortune as of December 3, 2013, at no more than $300 million USD, or a mere 2 percent of his peak value. By late November 2013, banks held lien for 88% of Zyuzin's entire Mechel stake.^[11]

Kommersant Business Daily ranked Zyuzin fifth among senior managers in the Metals and Mining Sector in 2010.^[20] With a personal fortune of $8.9 billion USD, he was ranked 16th on the Forbes list of 200 richest Russian business people.^[5] After losing a substantial portion of his net value in 2013 due to the Mechel stock decline, he dropped out of the top 100 of the Forbes list.^[11]

Forbes magazine describes Igor Zyuzin as a man of tempers, who can be extremely stubborn and incapable of negotiation and compromise – character traits that have made him many opponents. The magazine also claims that Igor Zyuzin has never granted an interview in his life.^[6]

• Zyuzin Igor biography (in English)