Abramovich: what now after his £12 billion loss?

CHELSEA football club's chief executive Peter Kenyon was sent out to calm nerves after reports that the club's billionaire owner Roman Abramovich is looking for buyers. "I can assure you on his behalf that this is totally unfounded ... rubbish," Kenyon declared at a fans' forum.

The supporters may have felt this sounded a lot like "the manager's job is safe", a time-honoured formula that usually means the opposite, but Chelsea were adamant. The club is not for sale, the management said, and underlined the point by issuing a writ for libel against the newspaper that suggested it was.

That should have stopped speculation in its tracks but then Dr Sulaiman al Fahim, who represented Sheikh Mansour in his £200 million takeover of Manchester City, weighed in. He emerged as the frontman for a group of German investors who appear to believe Chelsea is very much for sale if the price is right. This coincided with disclosures that Abramovich may have lost £12 billion of his £15 billion fortune.

Even if the club is not actively for sale, something is going on. Witness Kenyon's recently introduced round of cost-cutting measures. The scouting network of experts sent out to find new talent was shrunk from 35 to 15. Then players were told their ticket allocation for family and friends was being halved from eight to four per match. A plan to start charging for meals at the Cobham training ground canteen was also mooted and physios were told not to be wasteful with things such as liniment and energy drinks.

Denying John Terry and his teammates an extra can of Lucozade is hardly likely to make much impact on Chelsea's financial position, and even Kenyon's other savings pale into insignificance when viewed alongside a £75 million annual loss.

So is something afoot? Certainly, Abramovich seems to have lost enthusiasm for watching his team play. He has been attending fewer games and when Chelsea played a crucial match against Manchester United earlier this month he didn't even turn up. He took his girlfriend Daria Zhukova away on holiday instead. And the strings on Abramovich's famously large purse appear to have been pulled much tighter of late.

Instead of making new signings in the current transfer window, Chelsea sold Wayne Bridge to Manchester City for £12 million. Even last summer's purchases, Deco and Jose Bosingwa, were covered by selling players.

The doom-mongers could be forgiven for interpreting all this as a sign of waning interest. They might also point to the fact that Abramovich has suffered a series of desperate reversals during the economic downturn. It was disclosed at the weekend that he has just sold shares in a Russian gold mining company for £12 million, despite the fact he paid £49 million for them just over a year ago.

So what are the facts? Abramovich is among the most private of men and he has never discussed money publicly. But sources in Moscow say he has taken a massive hit on the stock market there.

Abramovich owns 36 per cent of the steel giant, Evraz, shares in which have been in freefall for almost a year. The group was worth around $17 billion last spring. Now it is valued at $1.3 billion.

Abramovich uses a corporate vehicle, Millhouse, for many of his investments. The respected Moscow newspaper Izvestia recently reported that Millhouse's assets have plummeted in value, from $6.5 billion to $2 billion. Overall, Izvestia claimed, Abramovich's wealth had declined from an estimated $23.5 billion last year to $3.3 billion now.

The numbers appear to paint a grim picture, but they have to be seen in context. As Abramovich's people point out, his losses are only paper losses because he has no intention of selling all his shares. The assets are suffering now because of the world economic crisis but they are all held in strong businesses which are likely to recover.

Abramovich received $13.3 billion for his share in Sibneft, the oil company purchased by Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy concern in 2005. Not all this money was invested in businesses suffering in the current downturn. Informed sources in Moscow suspect he has a sizeable chunk of his fortune safely salted away.

And Abramovich, along with a number of other Russian oligarchs, has an advantage not shared by all tycoons suffering from the global crunch. While many rich individuals have been forced to sell assets at a huge loss to prop up their businesses, Abramovich and others have been given a helping hand by the Russian government. The Kremlin has put $34 billion into Russia's banks and told them to keep businesses afloat. One bank, VTB, 75 per cent owned by the state, obliged by granting Abramovich's Evraz a $360 million one-year loan.

Abramovich's friend Oleg Deripaska, also considered a friend of the Kremlin, has received $4.5 billion from another state-controlled bank, VEB.

These bail-outs with public money have angered many. The Russian MP and investigative journalist Alexander Khinshtein said: "What we have in reality is a strange situation where an oligarch comes to the state and says: 'Give me money because I can't pay salaries to my workers.' So the state gives him money and the oligarch continues his luxurious way of life, travelling abroad, buying yachts. One such oligarch is Roman Abramovich."

He is certainly correct about Abramovich persisting with what some believe is a near compulsion for buying yachts. He is currently believed to be building the world's largest pleasure vessel, a motor yacht around 530ft long, around 50 per cent longer than a navy destroyer. The yacht, named Eclipse, is being constructed at the Blohm and Voss shipyard in Hamburg and is due for delivery in about a year's time.

Abramovich already has Pelorus, one of the world's largest superyachts, and his fleet has included other multi-million pound vessels such as Sussurro and Ecstasea. He is believed to have presented a previous yacht, Le Grand Bleu, to his right-hand man and old friend, Eugene Schvidler.

Eclipse may have acquired its name because it is set to surpass anything in Abramovich's fleet and, some experts believe, anything currently afloat. It will have two, possibly three, helicopter pads and its own submarine housed in a special compartment from which it can be launched and recovered.

The yacht will also have a missile detection system and defences capable of seeing off even the most determined pirate.No one knows how much Eclipse is costing, but the figure of £200 million already quoted is thought to be far too low. Abramovich is understood to have already covered most of the vessel's cost by making stage payments during its build.

The question of whether he might sell Chelsea to improve his financial position has to be seen in the context of this undertaking and other assets he owns. An insight into his wealth came a few months ago when he defended a High Court action in London. He was being sued over allegations that he illegally acquired an oilfield from, among others, a number of British investors.

The case was thrown out. During the hearing, however, Mr Justice Christopher Clarke laid bare the facts of Abramovich's fortune. It included property in Britain, France, Sardinia, the United States and the Caribbean. He also owns extensive real estate in Russia.

Indeed, Abramovich appears to enjoy buying houses as much as he likes to buy yachts. In 2005 he spent close to £50 million on four houses in Belgravia. The properties adjoin each other and he created one huge house by linking them. The property is believed to have gone to his ex-wife Irina as part of their divorce settlement.

He also bought a number of flats in Lowndes Square from which he intends to create a home worth £150 million. Last summer he added an £18 million house in Aspen, Colorado, to his portfolio. He also has other properties in the area, including a ski lodge. His real estate holdings in Colorado alone are said to be worth £35 million.

Even as his fortunes waned last year he was spending heavily. He bought Lucian Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping for £17 million and a Francis Bacon Triptych for a record-setting £43 million.

If Abramovich ever did decide to sell Chelsea, it is unlikely to be because he can no longer afford it. So far, he has put up about £600 million in interest-free loans and he knows he is unlikely to get this back any time soon, whether he sells or not.

It was widely thought that his decision to buy Chelsea was inspired by a desire to acquire a profile outside Russia. He has achieved this handsomely, not least because under his ownership Chelsea have prospered.

When he bought out Ken Bates in 2003 for £140 million, Chelsea was the tenth biggest club in Europe in terms of revenue earning. Last year they were the fourth, earning £190 million. Chelsea have fewer than half Manchester United's 5.8 million supporters, but the 2.4 million they do have represent a fivefold increase on pre-Abramovich times. He has also noted, with great satisfaction, that Chelsea are a big hit in Europe. According to research done on the continent it is the seventh most popular club among European nations, with 19.7 million fans - 300,000 more than Liverpool.

Europe is very important to Abramovich and he was bitterly disappointed when Chelsea lost the Champions League final to Manchester United in Moscow last May. That disappointment coincided with a cataclysmic event in British football, the arrival of immensely rich Arab owners at Manchester City. Suddenly, Chelsea are no longer the richest club in the world and, when it comes to buying world stars, they can always be outbid by City.

It happened in the summer when, after months of Chelsea negotiating for Real Madrid striker Robinho, City stepped in at the last minute to hijack the deal. Robinho signed for City for a British record £32.5 million and Chelsea were humiliated.

Abramovich wants his coach Luiz Felipe Scolari to deliver success in Europe but the question he is probably asking himself is whether in the new reality it will be possible.

Many of Chelsea's players are either over 30 or approaching that age. Young blood is needed now to guarantee a future. But does Abramovich have the will to go head to head financially with the Abu Dhabi billionaires at Manchester City? If he doesn't, the cream of the transfer market will be skimmed off by them and others.

Although Chelsea are losing around £75 million a year, Peter Kenyon says they are within reach of breaking even. Indeed, he is promising an announcement that will dispel any worries that Abramovich is losing interest in the club. Speculation suggests this refers to plans to relocate to a new super-stadium. One report at the weekend suggested Abramovich is prepared to put up £500 million to underwrite the project.

Somehow, that seems less believable than it might once have been.