Russian billionaire Avdeev says he's sold up to spend more time with his 23 children

MOSCOW: Russian billionaire banker Roman Avdeev said on Thursday that he had sold his remaining stake in the Rossium Group holding and that he no longer held any assets in Russia and would be spending more time with his many children.

Avdeev said he had sold his remaining stake in Rossium - a holding company for Avdeev's assets - to Sergei Sudarikov, a billionaire who began as a trader in the 1990s. The price of the sale was not disclosed.

"As a result of this transaction, I no longer hold any assets or business projects in Russia," Avdeev said in a post on Facebook.

"This decision will enable me to dedicate more time to my loved ones, especially my children, and to other significant areas of my life that are not connected to business."

Avdeev posted the statement above a picture of him with some of his 23 children, 19 of whom he adopted.

Avdeev, whose fortune is ranked by Forbes at $1.2 billion, began selling radio components and decoders for televisions in the 1980s as the Soviet Union crumbled - and then moved on to importing computers.

He bought the Credit Bank of Moscow in 1994, and later branched out into agriculture, real estate and pharmaceuticals.

"For me, this transaction represents a logical step that concludes my long-standing partnership with Sergei Sudarikov, which began in 2019 with the signing of a memorandum on strategic cooperation," Avdeev said.