Russian billionaires: nyet on commodities, yes on golf

Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Oleg Deripaska isn’t letting $20 billion of debt handicap his golf game.

Like fellow Russian billionaires Roman Abramovich and Vladimir Potanin, the 41-year-old golf enthusiast amassed, and then lost billions of dollars on commodities. They now are turning to their hobbies as one way to help rebuild fortunes ravaged by Russia’s worst economic decline on record.

More billionaires hit with margin calls

Forbes, in its November 17 issue, identified the following five global billionaires hit with substantial margin calls:

Aubrey McClendon
- sold most of his shares in Chesapeake Energy for well over a $1 billion loss

Sumner Redstone
- dumped half his shares in Viacom and CBS, at half its value just a couple of months ago

Oleg Deripaska
- sold $1.5 billion of Magna Intl. and Hochtief for a net loss

Alisher Usmanov
- is "forced to give back a stake now worth $700 million in ... Gazprom"

Kostyantin Zhevago
- the Ukranian billionaire unloaded 21% of Ferrexpo at a sizeable loss