By Anna Hirtenstein and Dmitry Zhdannikov
LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) -Leonid Fedun, a co-founder of Lukoil, has sold his roughly $7 billion stake in the Russian company, three sources said and data showed, completing a 30-year ride that made Lukoil a global force but lately saw it shrinking fast under sanctions.
After months of averting Western sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Lukoil was hit hard in October and is now selling foreign assets.
The company has long been tipped by analysts as a potential acquisition target for state-controlled peer Rosneft, now also under Western sanctions.
Ukrainian-born and Monaco-based Fedun sold his roughly 10% stake back to Lukoil in early 2025, two sources close to the deal said, in a rare example of a Russian billionaire quietly unwinding his holdings in the country.
In August, Lukoil said it would cancel 76 million shares – or about 11% of its capital – that it bought back from the market in 2024-2025.
Fedun’s stake was worth around $7 billion, according to Reuters calculations based on market prices, although it is unclear whether that is the price he received.
Lukoil declined to comment.
Fedun could not be reached for comment.
GRADUAL RETREAT FROM THE SPOTLIGHT
Fedun, 69, became one of Russia’s richest people during the chaotic privatisations of the 1990s under late President Boris Yeltsin after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
A military school graduate, Fedun pursued a career as a lecturer in the 1980s when he travelled to Siberia and met a key Soviet oil director Vagit Alekperov, 74.
The two men worked together on privatising some of the best West Siberian oil fields when Yeltsin approved their sale in 1993, in a move that turned state enterprises into private firms and some state employees into billionaires overnight.
As Lukoil’s chief executive, Alekperov worked on rebuilding oil output inside Russia while Fedun focused on acquisitions inside and outside Russia.
That drive culminated in U.S. major ConocoPhillips buying a major stake in Lukoil in 2004 only to sell it in 2010 as it refocused on its U.S. business.
Lukoil managed to grow after Vladimir Putin took over from Yeltsin in 2000 and sought to consolidate state control in strategic industries.
Lukoil came under fire as part of the Kremlin’s back-tax claim probes into the industry but managed to avert the destruction of rival Yukos and its politically ambitious shareholders.
Mirroring the lavish spending of other Russian oligarchs, Fedun became a top investor in Russian soccer Premier League club Spartak Moscow.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Alekperov resigned as Lukoil CEO after Britain and Australia imposed sanctions on him.
The same year, Lukoil said it was concerned by the “tragic events in Ukraine” and supported negotiations to end the conflict, delivering rare public remarks against what Moscow calls a special military operation.
But while Alekperov continues to be actively involved with Lukoil behind the scenes, Fedun retreated, the three sources said. He stepped down as vice president in June 2022 and sold his stake in Spartak in August 2022. Lukoil said at the time that Fedun was leaving due to retirement age and family reasons.
As a Monaco resident, Fedun decided to cut his Russian holdings, one of the sources said.
(Reporting by Anna Hirtenstein and Dmitry Zhdannikov. Editing by Mark Potter)
