MERRILL LYNCH and other Western advisers are helping a secretive oligarch from the Russian republic of Dagestan in his rise to huge riches and are working to bring a number of his companies to flotation in London, The Times has learnt.

Suleiman Kerimov, 40, a former soldier in the Soviet strategic rocket forces and an entrepreneur since the 1990s, is little known in the West. Yet sources close to Nafta Moskva, his holding company, say that his personal worth is around $12 billion (£6.4 billion), making him the second-richest Russian after Roman Abramovich, according to Forbes estimates.

Merrill Lynch and other Western firms are looking to make Nafta into one of the world’s pre-eminent private equity firms. In March, Mr Kerimov hired Allen Vine, the 35-year-old former head of Merrill Lynch’s Moscow office, to be chairman of the board of the company. Mr Vine continues as a non-executive director of Merrill Lynch CIS.

Merrill is benefiting from the relationship already. It is being tipped as lead-manager for the London flotation of Polymetal, Russia’s largest silver and second-largest gold company, which Nafta bought from the ICT Group in November, for $930 million. Sources close to Nafta say that Polymetal is now worth $3 billion and a 25 per cent stake will be floated some time next year.

According to these sources, two other Nafta assets are being prepared for London listing — its real estate arm and its cable network assets. The property arm is thought to be worth $2 billion to $3 billion. The cable assets include National Cable Networks and Mosteleset and together make up the leading cable television company in Russia, worth about $2 billion, according to sources.

Nafta also has a “global liquidity” business segment, which has around $12 billion in equities, made up of two main holdings — a 4.2 per cent stake in Gazprom, the gas monopoly, worth about $10 billion, and a 6 per cent stake in Sberbank, the state banking monopoly, worth around $2 billion. Both were acquired in 2004. The Sberbank shares were acquired using a loan from Sberbank itself, backed with collateral provided by Nafta.

Matthias Westman, chief executive of Prosperity Capital Management and a shareholder in Yukos, the oil producer declared bankrupt this week, says that Nafta has also been buying shares in Yukos over the past six months. Sources close to Nafta deny this.

The Western advisers helping to usher Mr Kerimov into the ranks of the world’s richest tycoons — including Merrill Lynch, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the auditor, and Latham & Watkins, the law firm — are keen to portray him as a Western-style businessman. “He’s like Warren Buffett, a highly educated, bottom-up analyst of businesses,” one businessman close to him said. His aim is to make Nafta into a private equity firm, “like Blackstone or Carlyle, making acquisitions in similar sectors”.

Still, Mr Kerimov has some controversial business associates. One business partner from the mid-1990s, Sergei Isakov, was named by the US Department of Homeland Security as a recipient of oil bribes from Saddam Hussein. Sources close to Nafta say that the two have no business dealings now, though Mr Isakov remains an acquaintance. He denied the American allegations.

Mr Kerimov is also a deputy in the Duma and ran in past years as a candidate for LDPR, the radical nationalist party of Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Both Mr Zhirinovsky and LDPR were also named as recipients of Iraqi bribes by the US Government. Mr Zhirinovsky also denied the allegations.

Sources close to Nafta say that Mr Kerimov’s political activities are very limited. The Western firms working with Nafta say they are satisfied that he did not trade in Iraqi oil.

The Dagestani oligarch is not embarrassed to spend his enormous wealth. At a recent birthday celebration, he hired Christina Aguilera to come and sing, for an alleged fee of $1 million. He also recently bought one of the biggest yachts in the world, the 92-metre Ice.

Like his former business partner Mr Abramovich, Mr Kerimov is a football-lover. He made a bid for AS Roma, the leading Italian club, last year, though the deal fell through.

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