Today our shareholder Rinat Akhmetov celebrates his 60th birthday. He continues as the leading investor in modern Ukrainian history.
Mr Akhmetov founded SCM in Donetsk in 2000. At that time, Ukraine's industrial heartland was still recovering from the 1990s, when the country faced unemployment, poverty and annual inflation of 10,000%. Supply chains were broken, wages were unpaid and assets were split between inefficient owners. Over the next quarter of a century, he built SCM into one of Eastern Europe's largest industrial groups.
Recalling those years, he said:
"I took on responsibility; I convinced Western investors to invest in Ukraine. We restarted the factories, paid off all debts to workers, built new production facilities and began selling products on global markets."
SCM has generated more than US$33 billion in cumulative tax contributions to the Ukrainian state and sustained 150,000 jobs at its pre-war peak. Since the start of russia's full-scale invasion, SCM companies have kept the economy running through the most destructive war in Europe since 1945. From 2022 to 2026, humanitarian and defence support has totalled more than US$392 million.
His philosophy is captured in three commitments that define SCM's mission: We build. We invest in people. We keep our word.
To mark his birthday, we have published a special webpage on his path of strategic investment and support for Ukraine: Rinat Akhmetov at 60
