Saudi prince tops list of richest men in Middle East

Dubai: Middle East businessmen are well represented in the world's billionaires list, as current Forbes data show.

The richest by far is still Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Al Saud, head of Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding. His current net worth is estimated by Forbes at $19.4 billion (Dh71.2 billion), up $6.1 billion from last year.

Prince Al Waleed is the nephew of the Saudi king and holds his fortune in the listed Kingdom Investment Holding based in Riyadh. The company owns stakes in Citigroup, Walt Disney, Motorola, Coca Cola, Apple, Four Seasons, Fairmont and News Corp, among others. A few weeks ago, News Corp purchased a 9 per cent stake in Al Waleed's Arab media and entertainment company Rotana.

Prince Al Waleed's real estate fortune is valued at more than $3 billion. He owns a couple of aeroplanes, including a custom-made Airbus A380. Second on the Middle East richest list is Ethiopian-born Saudi citizen Mohammad Al Amoudi, who made his fortune in oil, gold mining and agriculture. He holds stakes in refineries in Sweden and Morocco, his construction company Midroc operates in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He has also invested in hotels, hospitals, finance, operations and maintenance companies. He is said to be the largest foreign investor in both Sweden and Ethiopia, and his net worth is estimated by Forbes at $10 billion.

Kuwaiti Nasser Al Kharafi and his family own an estimated fortune of $8.7 billion, based on earnings from one of the Middle East's oldest and largest family trading firms, MA Kharafi & Sons.

It comprises more than 100 sub-companies active in the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe in the hospitality, construction, manufacturing and marketing business. He also owns stakes in Kuwait Telecom and National Bank of Kuwait and operates the food company Americana, which is popular throughout the Middle East.

Mohammad Bin Eisa Al Jaber is a Saudi businessman estimated at $7.5 billion. He is invested in properties mostly in Europe, owns hotel group JJW and MBI International Holding which operates one of the Middle East's largest food processing companies, real estate in Saudi Arabia and oilfield services companies.

One of his playgrounds is Austria, where he owns property and holds stakes in several companies like ski-maker Kneissl where his eldest daughter Masheal Al Jaber was made co-manager recently.

He also, though unsuccessfully, tried to buy stakes in Austria's ailing national carrier Austrian Airlines before it was eventually sold to Lufthansa.

Sulaiman Al Rajhi, a Saudi, who is estimated to have a net worth of $6.5 billion, made his fortune by establishing small money changing businesses throughout the region, which later turned out to become the world's largest Islamic bank, Al Rajhi.

He owns a broad variety of other businesses in the manufacturing, real estate, agriculture and warehousing sectors as well as a shrimp farm. Sulaiman is one of the brothers behind Al Rajhi Bank, together with Mohammad, Abdullah and Saleh.

The latter owns a stake in one of country's biggest wheat producers and last year sold the group's poultry business Hail Agricultural Development to Gulf dairy giant Almarai for $253 million.

Egyptian Nassef Sawiris, with a fortune of $5.9 billion, is the youngest son of the Orascom Group founder Onsi Sawiris. He oversees the construction and fertiliser division of the group and has established a joint venture with Morgan Stanley to invest in infrastructure in the Mena region.

Orascom owned and operated cement plants in Egypt, Algeria, Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq and Spain, which had a combined annual production capacity of 21 million tonnes after it was sold to French Lafarge group in 2007. Besides Nassef, his brother Naguib has made a similar fortune as head of Orascom Telecom. Their father, Onsi Sawiris, is said to own $3.1 billion.

The richest businessman in the United Arab Emirates, according to Forbes, is Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair together with his family, estimated at $3.5 billion.

Top shot: Billionaires club