Boastful Russian billionaire admits he is going bust

A RUSSIAN building tycoon who once declared anyone failing to become a billionaire in Russia was a loser admitted yesterday that his company is going bust.

Mirax Group head Sergei Polonsky, who was worth $1.2 billion in 2008, said in his internet blog that the company would stop all construction.

The news comes after a court last week froze Mirax Group’s assets for its failure to repay a $242 million (€170m) loan, putting the brakes on such projects as the Federation Tower, a Moscow spire planned for completion in 2010.

Polonsky declared in 2008 that “those who don’t have a billion, can go to hell”. Last autumn, he urged reporters not to blow the economic downturn out of proportion.

Now, he acknowledges things have changed.

“During the past year, we haven’t managed to secure a single loan for construction, and in the past month we haven’t sold a single square metre of housing or collected any instalment payments for the real estate we’ve already sold,” he wrote.

Mirax Group is “struggling with the storming seas of the economic crisis” and may not survive, he wrote. “If we are destined to perish, we’ll do it with our heads up high.”