The Rise and Fall of Adnan Kivan: Odesa’s Most Notorious Tycoon
Ah, Adnan Kivan! A name as popular in Odesa as a night out with cheap vodka and questionable karaoke choices! This Syrian businessman was not just a local character; oh no, he was a bona fide multimillionaire, tickling the wallets of many with his “talents” in real estate. If you’re wondering who he was, just picture the maverick developer who reshaped the skyline of Odesa while giving a cheeky nod to controversies that seemed to follow him like an overzealous puppy.
The Magnificent Journey
Now, Adnan Kivan wasn’t born with a gold spoon in his mouth. Legend has it, he started his journey in Ukraine as a student—sipping coffee while dreaming of big skyscrapers, charmed by the local lingo and perhaps a local lass! And what do you know? He got married and decided to stick around, presumably because he realized that turning back would mean going home to parents who kept asking, “When are you bringing home grandchildren?” And so, KADORR Group was born, named after his family. Ingenious, isn’t it? Remembering to thank the folks for the family connections that helped him along the way.
Skyscrapers and Scandals: A Love Story
Fast forward to 2010—Kivan’s KADORR Group kicked off a real estate spree that would make even Monopoly champions blush. From residential complexes in Odesa to luxury apartments in Kyiv, it was all pearls, pearls, pearls! Although let’s just say the locals and environmental enthusiasts were not exactly raising their glasses in cheer. “Aesthetics,” they shouted, “where are the aesthetics?” I mean, if constructing a skyscraper were an art form, Kivan would have been the Picasso of poorly clad buildings!
The Philanthropist or a Schemer? You Decide!
Ah, but wait! He was also a philanthropist! A mix of Robin Hood and Scrooge McDuck, if you will. Donated 200 camels to Bedouins, built mosques, and even funded the local arts—probably to ensure that they would portray him in a favorable light! It’s quite the legacy: “Hey kids, remember that time your father gave a herd of camels to keep families from poverty? Yes, that camel is a tribute to our good fortune!”
The Business of Business
However, it wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies. Kivan had his fair share of run-ins with the local authorities. What’s that? A businessman not playing nicely with politicians? Shocking! The local mayor, Gennady Trukhanov, had some colorful words about Kivan, calling him his “main opponent.” Sounds like the plot of a soap opera, doesn’t it? One minute you’re drinking coffee together, the next, you’re involved in headline-making confrontations!
The Ghost of KyivPost
If demolishing the print media scene was a talent demonstration, Kivan was a gold medalist. In a twist that had journalists frothing at the mouth, he bought KyivPost, only to close it down faster than you can say “freedom of the press.” Give Kivan some credit, though; he did try to launch a Ukrainian-language version but ended up driving away the staff faster than a bad date. And poof! Just like that, The Kyiv Independent was born—kudos to the journalists fleeing the KADORR sinking ship.
His Legacy
Now, as we say goodbye to Adnan Kivan, one has to wonder: What will be remembered? The skyscrapers, the scandals, or the camels? Perhaps all of the above, wrapped in a nice bow with a side of environmental protests? Only time will tell how history will judge this man who was a family man, a businessman, and—ahem—a bit of a big-hearted enigma.
If our dear friend Jimmy Carr were to say something, it’d probably be something sharp like, “Well, at least when he closed that newspaper, he got better headlines than the Kardashians for a week!” Or if Rowan Atkinson took a crack, he’d be fumbling through an elaborate mime about planning skyscrapers without blueprints, all while evoking the hapless expressions that only he can. Either way, Kivan’s impact can’t be overshadowed. And let’s face it, if life was scripted like a sitcom, his would have the audience more engaged than a wedding crashers’ buffet table!
In the end, one thing remains certain: Adnan Kivan was a man of contrasts. A titan of industry, a bringer of controversy, and a ghost in the corridors of Odesa’s bustling life. And just like all good tales, the truth is that nobody can ever really go away—they just become a part of the narrative. Cheers to you, Mr. Kivan; may your stories echo in the walls of those “pearls” you left behind!
photo copyrightkaddor
image captionAdnan Kivan would have turned 62 in November
October 28, 2024
Adnan Kivan’s name is known not only to every Odesa resident, but also to many people in Ukraine. Having Ukrainian citizenship, he was the largest Arab investor, a multimillionaire, included in the ranking of the 100 richest Ukrainians.
Adnan Kivan built dozens of skyscrapers and was one of the most influential Odessans. He also closed the English-language newspaper Kyiv Post and invested a lot of money in charity not only in Ukraine, but also in his native Syria.
So his death can change a lot, especially in Odessa – the city that became his second homeland.
First steps in business
In Soviet times, many students from Arab countries and, in particular, from Syria, studied in Ukraine. Syrian Adnan Kivan was a student of one of the Odessa universities. He met a girl and, after getting married, decided to stay in Ukraine. They had three children. The name of the KADORR Group corporation he founded is the first letters of the names of his family members.
But KADORR Group appeared in 2010, when he was already an influential businessman in Odessa. Prior to that, he earned his first capital on intermediary services between enterprises of the USSR and Egypt. For some time, he also sold the products of “Kryvorizhstal” abroad.
The press wrote that the businessman comes from an influential Syrian clan, and therefore his success in business is due not least to family connections and finances.
And Adnan Kivan got involved in real estate in the early 2000s. First as an investor, and then as a developer.
Kivan’s “Pearls”.
This is how financial analyst Serhii Lyamets told in 2018 about how Adnan Kivan entered the Odessa business and how he strengthened it.
“The Syrian managed his family’s money incredibly efficiently. One by one, he took the best plots in the city for himself,” – wrote Serhiy Lyamets on Facebook.
image copyrightKADORR
Photo caption Construction of skyscrapers in Odesa and Kyiv constantly became the cause of protests by environmentalists and public activists
The KADORR Group corporation, founded in 2010, has built about 60 buildings of the “Pearl” residential complex to date. Odesa media repeatedly wrote about activists’ protests due to their unaesthetic, as public activists believed. But at the same time, the KADORR Group corporation has always had a reputation as a reliable developer.
There are several residential complexes built by Kivan in Kyiv, in particular, in Pechersk.
The total area of Adnan Kivan’s housing, cottage towns, hotels, shopping and business centers, restaurants and fitness clubs is more than one million square meters.
Kivan also owned real estate abroad, in particular, in London.
Politics, charity and scandals
In politics, the businessman did not favor any one political force. As the profile publication “Detector Media” writes, in different years it was possible to see favorable publications about various politicians in the mass media owned by him in Odesa.
However, it is known that for a long time he maintained relations with the rector of the law academy, Serhiy Kivalov, and also closely cooperated with Mikheil Saakashvili, when he headed the Odesa Regional State Administration.
However, the most noticeable was his confrontation with the mayor of Odesa, Gennady Trukhanov. The mayor himself admitted this in an interview with BBC Ukraine:
“Can you name who is your main opponent in Odesa, who are you hinting at? – This is the owner of KADORR. I don’t know how he manages to get a court decision prohibiting the inspection of his enterprises.”
At the same time, the businessman was repeatedly awarded the “Patron of the Year” award. He built mosques, founded an Arab cultural center in Odessa, financially supported the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater, and donated apartments to low-income Odessa residents.
He allocated considerable funds for aid in Syria for the construction of hospitals and pharmacies. And once he gave 200 camels to the Bedouins of Egypt and Syria. This, according to him, helped 200 families get out of poverty, and for that he thanked the people of Odessa who bought apartments in the new “Pearls” buildings.
But despite the image of a philanthropist, there were also scandals in the millionaire’s biography. In particular, in 2017, the Security Service of Ukraine conducted searches at KADORR Group due to suspicions of financing the militants of the so-called “DPR-LPR” through the fugitive former deputy of the Odesa City Council, Ihor Markov. However, the results of this investigation by the special services are not known.
Photo copyright: Kyivpost
Photo caption: Adnan Kivan with KyivPost journalists
The one who closed KyivPost
In 2018, Adnan Kivan bought KyivPost, a popular English-language publication in Ukraine, from another millionaire, Mohammad Zahur. At first, as the journalists said, he did not interfere in the work of the editorial office, but later there were instructions to criticize the government less.
After Adnan Kivan decided to open a Ukrainian-language version of the publication and appoint to the position of editor-in-chief a person who managed a TV channel controlled by him in Odesa, journalists began to protest.
The businessman promised to preserve the independence of the media, but they did not find a common language, and in the end, in the fall of 2021, Kivan suspended the publication of the newspaper, leaving only the Internet site. Most of the journalists then resigned from the editorial office, they created a new publication – The Kyiv Independent.
