Iakov Goldovskiy

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.

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. 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 The civil claims filed by Sibur and Gazprom were withdrawn.

In 2002, while being held in pre-trial detention, Goldovsky agreed to sell his assets to Gazprom. In addition, the transaction included a stake in Sibur itself.

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

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.

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 , 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, First Ukrainian Development (FUD; Ukraine), Wellchem, a household chemicals manufacturing company, thereby ending his cooperation with Russia and its business entities.

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.

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.

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.

Forbes sources described Goldovskiy as a “talented businessman.” Economist 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.

Personal life

Since 1992,