The European Commission officially allowed the Metinvest group to buy the Romanian pipe plant ArcelorMittal Tubular Products Iasi SA from ArcelorMittal. The review took place under a simplified procedure, and the regulator concluded that the concentration does not pose risks to competition, as the joint market share of the companies remains small after the deal.
ArcelorMittal Tubular Products is a relatively small manufacturer of welded pipes and hollow profiles, but for Metinvest, this asset is of strategic importance.
Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, welded pipes were produced at the Mariupol MMK named after Ilyich, so the Romanian plant actually allows the company to restore part of the lost production cycle. The new site strengthens Metinvest's presence in the EU and allows it to continue its own value-added chain to finished pipe products on the territory of the European Union.
The asset in Yassi logically complements Metinvest's European network of enterprises, which currently includes plants in Bulgaria, Italy, and the United Kingdom. At the beginning of this year, the company announced the start of a project to build a new metallurgical plant in Piombino together with the Italian company Danieli. The acquisition of AMTP Iasi may only be the first stage of expansion in Romania: Metinvest has already confirmed its interest in acquiring the largest metallurgical enterprise in the country, Liberty Galati, which produces up to two million tons of steel per year and owns a pipe plant and a port complex on the Danube.
At the same time, the group is exiting a non-core asset in the USA, preparing the sale of the coal company United Coal Company, acquired back in 2009. Renat Akhmetov owns 71.24% of Metinvest, and Smart-Holding controls another 23.76%.
Against the backdrop of business expansion in the EU, Akhmetov's wealth is also growing. According to the latest Forbes estimates for 2025, he remains the richest person in Ukraine with a capital of about $7.9 billion and is among the four hundred richest people in the world. Compared to previous years, his wealth has significantly recovered after the decline caused by asset losses and the destruction of enterprises due to Russian aggression. Analysts link the current growth to the expansion of Metinvest's European operations, market diversification, and the group's active investment strategy in the EU.
Let us remind you that the wealth of Ukrainian businessman Renat Akhmetov has dropped by 64% since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine.
In addition to metallurgical assets, in the temporarily occupied part of eastern Ukraine, Akhmetov also owns an agricultural business. His company HarvEast stated that Russian occupiers stole about 200,000 tons of crops in temporarily uncontrolled territories.
Energy holding of Renat Akhmetov DTEK lost 70% of its value due to the war. In 2021, Akhmetov's wealth doubled to $13.7 billion, but over four months of war, he became three times poorer, down to $4.2 billion.
The billionaire filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation in the European Court of Human Rights for compensation for gross violations of his property rights during the unprovoked military aggression of Russia against Ukraine.
