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Seven residents of the UAE – including four Emiratis - are on the Forbes 2013 billionaire’s list with a combined net worth of $16.25 billion.
Majid Al Futtiam tops the list of Emiratis and is ranked #376 globally with an estimated net worth of $3.6 billion.
“The group has rebounded from a depressed real estate market and losses, raising his net worth by $2.5 billion. In 2012 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were up seven per cent on revenues of nearly $6 billion,” Forbes wrote in his profile.
MAF Group, which is heavily invested in Egypt through its City Centre malls and Carrefour, expects to start construction in Cairo on a Mall of Egypt in the first quarter of 2013. It recently offered the billionaire Mansour brothers between $250-$300 million to buy their supermarket chain Metro. The group is conducting due diligence, the magazine said.
Abdulla bin Ahmad Al Ghurair & Family with an estimated net worth of $3.1 billion is ranked #2 in the UAE and #437 on the global list.
“Abdulla Al Ghurair and his billionaire brother, Saif, are scions of a prominent UAE business family. Al Ghurair founded Mashreq in 1967, now a leading bank in the country. He remains chairman. In the first nine months of 2012 it reported a 28% increase in net profits.
“The family owns a conglomerate that has interests in food, construction and retail and in November 2012 hired a non-family member to run it. The new CEO has an MBA from Stanford University and ran Hewlett-Packard's business in the Middle East,” the magazine said in his profile.
Abdulla Al Futtaim has been ranked #3 in the UAE and #922 on the global list with an estimated net worth of $1.65 billion.
Abdulla Al Futtaim
“Abdulla Al Futtaim owns huge conglomerate Al Futtaim Group. It operates Ikea, Toys "R" Us and Marks & Spencer franchises, sells Toyota and Honda vehicles, and co-owns the Middle East's largest privately-funded urban community, Dubai Festival City. The group is building a residential and commercial complex, Cairo Festival City, with the mall due to open in the summer of 2013. The group began construction of another big real estate project in Qatar called Doha Festival City; it is expected to be completed by 2014,” the magazine said.
Ranked #4 in the UAE and #1031 globally, Saif Al Ghurair & family are estimated with a net worth of $1.4 billion.
“Saif Al Ghurair is the former chairman of Al Ghurair Group. His brother Abdulla is also a billionaire. They come from an old Dubai merchant family with interests in banking, malls and manufacturing. Six of Saif's sons hold positions within the group. In November 2011 Saif sold a stake in his steel company to Nippon Steel,” the magazine wrote.
Although they are on the Forbes billionaires list, but hold Indian citizenship - Micky Jagtiani, MA Yusuff Ali and Joy Alukkas operate their business empires from the UAE.
Ranked #329 globally and #17 in India, Micky Jagtiani has an estimated wealth of $4 billion.
“Jagtiani controls $4.7 billion (sales) Landmark Group, a Middle East retailing empire with 1,300 stores in 18 countries. It's partnered with French retailer Auchan for a hypermarket venture in India where it also operates the franchise for doughnut chain Krispy Kreme in India; it plans to open 80 stores in the next five years. He's expanded into healthcare, opening iCARE, a primary healthcare clinic in Dubai,” Forbes said.
Yusuff Ali ranked #974 on the list has an estimated Net Worth of $1.5 billion.
Yusuff Ali
“Ali heads the Abu Dhabi-headquartered LuLu Group whose flagship is the $4.25 billion (sales) LuLu retail chain, recently ranked by Deloitte as one of the ten fastest growing retailers in the world. LuLu runs a string of hypermarkets, supermarkets and grocery stores in the Middle East, Africa and will soon launch its first mall in India,” the magazine said.
Joy Alukkas has an estimated fortune of $1 billion and is ranked #1342.
The magazine states: “Straight after high school, Alukkas headed to the Gulf in 1987 to open his family's first overseas jewelry store. He later went off on his own, creating Joyalukkas, a jewelry retail chain that has $1.2 billion in sales from 85 stores in India and the Gulf. Its 58,000 square foot store in Chennai city is billed as the world's biggest jewelry store. He's set to open the Mall Of Joy, a one-stop shop for weddings in several Indian cities.”
Pictures courtesy: forbes.com
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