By Dmitry Zhdannikov
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Local resource oligarchs have clawed back some ground lost to financiers on Russia's rich list over the year, a respected national magazine said on Monday, also predicting a flurry of Russian public share offerings.
Finans magazine said on Monday that secretive steel baron Vladimir Lisin had become Russia's richest man with $18.8 billion, outpacing last year's champion, outspoken and controversial investor Mikhail Prokhorov.
The overall league of Russian billionaires added 50 percent more names and showed the second best reading ever with 77 businessmen being worth over $1 billion, Finans said last week, explaining the jump by generous state bailouts and a stock market rally.
"The thaw on financial markets has dethroned cash-billionaires," Finans said.
When Finans published its list two years ago, Russia trailed only the U.S. as a home for the mega-rich with 101 dollar billionaires, but a collapse in oil and metals prices halved the number in 2009.
As a result, last year's heroes were those who sold their businesses before the crisis peaked, like Prokhorov, but after the markets rallied in 2009 more traditional Russian resource oligarchs climbed up the list again.
Five names in the top 10 are from the metals sector and two from oil.
Financial investors are still strong with Prokhorov being second with $17.85 billion, English soccer club Chelsea's owner Roman Abramovich third with $17 billion and another portfolio investor, Suleiman Kerimov, fourth with $14.5 billion.
Most Russian tycoons obtained their empires during controversial privatizations in the post-communist mid-1990s.
Some are famous for ostentatious displays of wealth and they could be soon joined by new soccer club and luxury villa owners as a new wave of Russian tycoons is considering raising billions of dollars through partial floatation of businesses.
"The current pricing levels have become so attractive that non-public companies have started talking about IPOs again," said Finans.
These plans are being encouraged by the example of RUSAL after the heavily indebted aluminum giant raised $2.2 billion in a Hong Kong IPO last month.
Its main owner, Oleg Deripaska, once Russia's richest man, also seems to be gradually recovering from deep debt troubles being ranked sixth with $13.8 billion.
"Coal conglomerate SUEK, media holding ProfMedia, retailer Viktoria and food company Russian Sea could all float stocks on bourses as early as spring," said Finans.
SUEK's main owner, coal to banking tycoon Andrei Melnichenko, is among Finans' top winners this year having climbed 12 positions up to the 15th place with $7.5 billion.
But it is Russia's oil trading king, Gennady Timchenko, who showed the most phenomenal rise on the rich scale after coming out of shadows and disclosing the purchase of minority stakes in some public companies last year.
Founder of one of the world's largest crude oil traders, Gunvor, Timchenko has repeatedly denied media speculations that he is a close friend of Russia's most influential politician, current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and that this friendship was behind the success of his company.
With $4 billion of now publicly disclosed wealth, Timchenko jumped 375 positions up to become Russia's 23th richest man.
(Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Mike Nesbit)
