Iakov Goldovskiy

Iakov Goldovskiy
Яків Ігорович Голдовський
Born1962 (age 63–64)
Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union[1]
OccupationBusinessman
Known for
Children4[1]

Iakov Igorevich Goldovskiy (/ɡoʊlˈdɒfski/;[2] born 1962) is a businessman known as former stockholder and president at the Russian petrochemical Sibur and for his ownership of Vienna-based Petrochemical Holding GmbH.[3][1][4][5]

Career

Sibur

Beginning in 1995, Goldovskiy initiated a strategic shift of his existing businesses toward gas processing and petrochemical operations. He oversaw these operations through Petrochemical Holding GmbH, which he ran out of Vienna, Austria. Goldovskiy acquired the relevant production assets, including gas processing and petrochemical plants that had lost their competitiveness following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of this formerly state-controlled sector of the economy.

In 1998, Gazprom agreed to participate in Goldovskiy’s project as a shareholder. In furtherance of this plan, between 1998 and 2000 Goldovskiy acquired 100% of the shares of Sibur, a company established in 1995 pursuant to a Presidential Decree and a Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation.[6]

By the end of 2001, Goldovskiy’s involvement in Sibur was marked by a corporate conflict with Gazprom, allegations of abuse of authority, and other misconduct. Goldovskiy’s detention in 2002 was viewed as part of a broader plan to consolidate state control over Gazprom and transfer assets such as Sibur to the control of individuals loyal to the country’s incumbent president.[7] Following the trial, Goldovskiy was found guilty of abuse of authority, but was acquitted of the other charges and released from custody in the courtroom. The civil claims filed by Sibur and Gazprom were withdrawn.[1][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]

In 2002, while being held in pre-trial detention, Goldovsky agreed to sell his assets to Gazprom.[3] These assets operated under vertical integration agreements with Sibur and were intended to be transferred to Sibur through planned share issuances, which were subsequently cancelled at Gazprom’s request.[15] In addition, the transaction included a stake in Sibur itself.

The estimated value of the transferred assets was $700 million.[16] At the end of 2003, as a result of a transaction between banks, Goldovsky received $96 million from companies affiliated with Gazprom.[17]

Petrochemical Holding and later business

After the Sibur case concluded in 2002, Goldovsky left Russia and resided permanently in Vienna, Austria, continuing his business activities through Petrochemical Holding GmbH, primarily in the gas and petrochemical industries and primarily outside of Russia.[3] In 2003, while remaining a shareholder, he became the company's managing director.[1][18][19]

Since the 2000s, Goldovsky has been implementing large-scale investment projects of international level. Thus, by building Europe’s largest polyethylene terephthalate production plant, Neo Group, in Klaipėda, Lithuania, in 2005 and integrating it into his company Retal Industries, which owned 10 PET preform manufacturing facilities in Lithuania, Bulgaria, Italy, and France, he established a vertically integrated holding company of the same name. Goldovskiy’s business interests have also included, at various times, Aqua Vision,[20] First Ukrainian Development (FUD; Ukraine),[21] Wellchem, a household chemicals manufacturing company,[3] and others.

By 2023, Goldovskiy completed the sale in Russia of the Korund-Cyan plant, Europe’s largest producer of sodium cyanide used in gold mining, and a PVC pipe manufacturing plant in Dzerzhinsk, withdrew from the shareholder structure of holding companies associated with the First Oil Group,[22] thereby ending his cooperation with Russia and its business entities.[4][23][24][25]

Egypt sodium cyanide project (DrasChem)

In 2024, Petrochemical Holding (Austria) and Draslovka Holding (Czech Republic) launched the development of a US$200 million sodium cyanide manufacturing project in Alexandria, Egypt, targeting export markets across Africa and Asia. The project is supported by the Egyptian Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade and the Ministry of Industry and is designed to capitalize on Egypt’s strategic location, industrial infrastructure, and locally available feedstocks.[26]

To implement the project, DrasChem Specialty Chemicals LLC – Private Free Zone ("DrasChem") was established in February 2025 pursuant to Egyptian Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 66 of 2024 to develop a specialty chemicals manufacturing facility for the production of Sodium Cyanide and its derivatives, serving the gold mining industry and supporting the growth of Egypt’s export-oriented industrial sector. [27]

Reception

In the late 1990s, Iakov Goldovskiy worked to consolidate fragmented gas processing and petrochemical enterprises into the Sibur holding company. The project was described as an effort to create a vertically integrated petrochemical corporation amid the breakdown of production chains following the collapse of the Soviet Union.[28]

Forbes sources described Goldovskiy as a “talented businessman.” Economist Alexey Golubovich noted his speed in decision-making and sense of responsibility, while Yuri Luzhkov called him one of the strongest participants in the Sibur project in terms of technical expertise and operational organization.[29]

Personal life

Since 1992,[22] Yakov Goldovsky has made Vienna (Austria), his home, where he currently lives with his wife and four children.[30]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Яков Голдовский". Forbes.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  2. ↑ "Goldovsky". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Бизнес Якова Голдовского: как бывший президент «Сибура» стал миллиардером". Vedomosti (in Russian). 2011-06-27. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  4. 1 2 "Бывший гендиректор СИБУРа продал завод «Корунд-Циан» в Дзержинске". RBC (Nizhny Novgorod) (in Russian). Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  5. ↑ "Energie: Russische Sibur kauft Wiener Ölhändler Citco". DiePresse.com (in German). 2009-05-28. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  6. ↑ "Постановление Правительства РФ от 07.03.1995 № 214 «Об учреждении акционерного общества открытого типа "Сибирско-Уральская нефтегазохимическая компания"»". docs.cntd.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  7. ↑ "Russian prosecutors raid Gazprom subsidiary". Energy Intelligence Group.
  8. ↑ "Бывший президент "СИБУРа" получит условный срок". Lenta.ru (in Russian). 2002-09-24. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  9. ↑ "Суд объявил бывшим руководителям "СИБУРа" приговор и отпустил их на свободу". Lenta.ru (in Russian). 2002-09-25. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  10. ↑ "Голдовский и Кощиц приговорены к 7 месяцам заключения". RIA Novosti (in Russian). 2002-09-25. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  11. ↑ "Дело СИБУРа поменяли на безделье". Kommersant (in Russian). 2002-09-26. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  12. ↑ "Обыски и аресты в "СИБУРе" инициировал "Газпром"". Lenta.ru (in Russian). 2002-01-09. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  13. ↑ "По делу "СИБУРа" допрошен бывший первый зампред "Газпрома" Вячеслав Шеремет". NEWSru.com (in Russian). 2002-08-15. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  14. ↑ "تهم بالفساد لرئيس شركة تابعة لغازبروم الروسية". Al Jazeera Net (in Arabic). 2002-01-31. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  15. ↑ ""Газпром" покончил с эмиссией". Vedomosti (in Russian). 2022-03-19. Retrieved 2026-06-09.
  16. ↑ "Ошибки собственников". Kommersant (in Russian). 2006-10-23.
  17. ↑ "Яков Голдовский добыл первую нефть". Kommersant (in Russian). 2019-06-14.
  18. ↑ "Petrochemical Holding GmbH (FN 263662P)". FirmenAtlas (in German). Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  19. ↑ "Petrochemical Holding GmbH – Company record". Firmen Monitor (in German). Retrieved 2026-04-14.
  20. ↑ "Pepsi наносит ответный удар". Forbes Russia (in Russian). 2008-05-03. Retrieved 2026-04-14.
  21. ↑ "На FUD прошла перестройка". Kommersant UA (in Russian). 2026-12-21. Retrieved 2026-04-14.
  22. 1 2 "У химика не сложилось с добычей". Kommersant.
  23. ↑ "Голдовский продал производителя цианистых солей для золотодобычи". Interfax (Russia) (in Russian). 2021-01-14. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  24. ↑ "Paly, Rappoport firms buy sodium cyanide plant from Goldovskiy for $450-500 mln". Interfax. 2021-01-14. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  25. ↑ "Не все то золото, что цианид (Korund-Cyan deal coverage)". Kommersant (in Russian). 2021-01-14. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  26. ↑ "DrasChem to establish Middle East's 1st sodium cyanide production complex in Egypt's Alexandria". Invest in Egypt (GAFI). Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  27. ↑ "DrasChem to Establish Middle East's 1st Sodium Cyanide Production Facility in Alexandria". General Authority of Investment and Free Zone - GAFI. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  28. ↑ "Почему Яков Голдовский не боялся идти на конфликт с «Газпромом»?". Издательский дом "Момент истины".
  29. ↑ "Приключения Янека. Кто помог Голдовскому выйти из тюрьмы и продать нефтехимию «Газпрому»". Forbes. 21 September 2016.
  30. ↑ "Investor and the State: Iakov Goldovskiy's Experience at RAFO Onești". Nine O’Clock. 15 October 2025.
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