Alfa Group

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Alfa Group Альфа-Групп
Type	Private conglomerate
Founded	1989
Founder	Mikhail Fridman Pyotr Aven
Headquarters	Moscow, Russia
Area served	Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, CIS
Key people	Mikhail Fridman German Khan Alexei Kuzmichov Pyotr Aven
Industry	Diversified investments
Revenue	▲ US$2,803,351,000 (2006)^[1]
Operating income	▲ US$1,790,920,000 (2006)^[1]
Profit	▲ US$1,664,493,000 (2006)^[1]
Total assets	▲ US$32,194,759,000 (2006)^[1]
Total equity	▲ US$9,391,639,000 (2006)^[1]
Subsidiaries	Alfa-Bank TNK-BP Altimo VimpelCom MegaFon
Website	http://www.alfagroup.org

Alfa Group Consortium (Russian: Консорциум «Альфа-Групп») is one of Russia's largest privately owned financial-industrial conglomerates, with interests in oil and gas, commodities trading, commercial and investment banking (Alfa Bank), insurance, retail trade and telecommunications. The group was founded by Mikhail Fridman (one of the most influential business leaders in Russia and one of the Russian oligarchs) and Peter Aven. The Consortium was built on Alfa-Eco, a trading company established in 1988 by Mr. Fridman. Its headquarters are in Moscow.

[edit] Joint ventures

Alfa Group owns a share of Смирновъ (or Smirnov Trading House), the popular Russian vodka. Diageo, the owner of Smirnoff and Captain Morgan, is the other co-owner in the venture.

Through its telecom arm Altimo, it controls 32.9% of voting shares in VimpelCom, Russia's leading mobile operator, in par with Telenor.

In April 2006 giant discount retailer Pyaterochka ( listed on London's AIM market), announced a merger with the supermarket chain Perekryostok. Alfa Group, being Perekryostok's largest shareholder, is going to hold the controlling stake in this combined business.

There are a number of current disputes regarding Alfa's claimed ownership of various stakes in telecoms companies.