FACTBOX: Commodities barons and their sports assets
(Reuters) - Commodities billionaires have bought into several English soccer clubs and sky-high oil and metals prices point to further possible acquisitions.
Below are details of the major sports interests of these magnates, as well as companies, who have made their fortunes in metals, oil and other commodities.
ALISHER USMANOV - Part owns Red and White Holdings, which holds a 24 percent stake in London Premier League team Arsenal.
Uzbek born, Russian citizen Usmanov founded and half owns Russian steel firm Metalloinvest. Usmanov is Russia's 19th richest man and is worth $9.5 billion.
On Monday, sources close to talks said Metalloinvest was in discussions to merge with Kazakh miner Kazakhmys to gain access to the London stock market.
Usmanov has also agreed an asset swap with Vladimir Potanin, the single largest shareholder in Norilsk Nickel with a view to creating a potential Russian mining giant to compete on a global scale.
Metalloinvest is also the shirt sponsor for Russian premier league team Dynamo Moscow.
LAKSHMI MITTAL - The chairman of ArcelorMittal SA, the world's largest steel manufacturer, bought a 20 percent stake in English Championship (second division) side Queens Park Rangers in London in late 2007. He joined Renault Formula One chief Flavio Briatore, who bought the West London club last September with a group of friends that included Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone. Mittal is the world's fourth wealthiest man.
ROMAN ABRAMOVICH - The world's 15th richest man and Russia's third richest bought English Premier League side Chelsea in 2003. His personal wealth is put at $24.3 billion. Abramovich's investment vehicle Millhouse LLC holds stakes in steel maker Evraz Group and Highland Gold Mining Ltd. When he acquired Chelsea he held stakes in Russian oil firm Sibneft and part-owned the country's top aluminum firm Rusal. Abramovich later sold those interests. Rusal has since merged with Russia's number two producer and Glencore's aluminum assets to become the world's top aluminum producer -- United Company RUSAL.
RINAT AKHMETOV - Ukraine's richest man owns the country's Shakhtar Donetsk football team. Part of his fortune was made through coal mining. Shakhtar means miner in Ukrainian.
GAZPROM - Owns Russian football club Zenit St Petersburg and is shirt sponsor for German side FC Schalke 04. Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of the gas export monopoly, sponsors ice hockey team Avangard Omsk.
LUKOIL - Primary sponsor of Russian football team Spartak Moscow. The company's third largest shareholder Leonid Fedun is Russia's 21st wealthiest man and worth $7 billion.
(Compiled by Karen Norton in London and Robin Paxton and Dmitry Zhdannikov in Moscow; Editing by Clare Fallon)
