In 2008, Deripaska lost the stake in Magna International Inc. after BNP Paribas SA, which financed the acquisition a year earlier, seized the shares as collateral for its loan.
Prokhorov also holds 17.02 percent of Rusal. In the U.S. he owns 80 percent of the Nets and a 45 percent stake in the Brooklyn arena, where he relocated the team in 2012.
Those assets, including the stadium, were valued at $2.7 billion when they were being considered for a merger deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers this year, two people with direct knowledge of the situation said, declining to be named as the information was unofficial and the parties failed to agree on the merger.
Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates the assets at $2.1 billion. Based on those estimates, Prokhorov’s share is worth about $1.1 billion to $1.8 billion.
Chelsea F.C.
That’s a better return than Roman Abramovich has achieved with Chelsea Football Club. The steel magnate paid $105 million for the London soccer team in 2003 and has since invested more than $800 million. Chelsea is now valued at about $937 million, according to Billionaires Index estimates.
Prokhorov hasn’t ruled out selling a minority stake in the Nets but will remain the main owner, according to the two people.
The team with the highest payroll in the league hasn’t been without problems. It had a loss of about $144 million in 2013, according to an ESPN report, after plowing a record $190 million into salaries and taxes.
Still, the value of the team is supported by the NBA’s new television deal with Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and Time Warner Inc.’s TNT in October, worth $24 billion over nine years -- almost triple the average fees for its current TV agreement.
‘Safe Bet’