PRESS RELEASE HURUN GULF SELF-MADE RICH LIST 2018

WITH 61% OR 22 BILLIONAIRES UAE LEADS GULF SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES LIST, FOLLOWED BY SAUDI ARABIA (9) AND OMAN (3)

HURUN REPORT FINDS 36 SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES IN THE GULF, UP 9

WITH US$11BN, MAJID AL FUTTAIM IS RICHEST SELF-MADE INDIVIDUAL IN GULF

DUBAI (16) CAPITAL FOR GULF SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRES, FOLLOWED BY RIYADH (5) AND ABU DHABI (5)

RETAIL, HEALTHCARE AND FINANCIAL SERVICES ARE INDUSTRIES OF CHOICE

10 NEW FACES, LED BY SUHAIL BAHWAN (79) OF SUHAIL BAHWAN GROUP

36% FROM INDIA; 17 IMMIGRANT BILLIONAIRES, LED BY 13 FROM INDIA AND 2 FROM UK

2 INDIVIDUALS UNDER 40 YEARS AND 5 ABOVE 80 YEARS, AVERAGE AGE IS 65 YEARS SAME AS LAST YEAR

WORLD’S LARGEST RICH LIST PROVIDER RELEASES HURUN GULF SELF-MADE RICH LIST 2018

 (27 March 2018, Dubai) Hurun Report today released the Hurun Gulf Self-Made Billionaires 2018, a ranking of the richest individuals from the Gulf States of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. This is the second year of the ranking and is a sub list of the Hurun Global Rich List, released on 28 February.

Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun Report, said, “Self-made entrepreneurs in the Gulf are growing fast. Almost half the self-made billionaires residing in the Gulf, are immigrants, especially from India, who have settled here.”

Table 1: Top 10 Hurun Gulf Self-Made Rich List 2018

↑ Rank increase yoy ↓ Rank decrease yoy - No Rank change yoy * New to Top 10

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2018

Largest Shopping mall operator and Middle East operator of French retailer Carrefour Majid Al Futtaim, of Majid Al Futtaim Holdings (US$11bn) is the richest self-made individual in the GCC, on the back of revenue of US$8.7bn and profits of US$1.14bn last year. Founded in 1992, Al Futtaim owns and operates 17 shopping malls with one million square meters of gross leasable area, 56 hypermarkets and 53 supermarkets, 11 hotels, 9 cinema locations with 92 screens, 16 Magic Planet sites and 45 fashion stores across 12 countries.

With US$7.8bn, Mohammed Al Amoudi, 71, an Energy and Investment magnet Ethiopian born business man who holds both Saudi and Ethiopian nationality made to the 2^nd position. Al Amoudi migrated from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia in his late teens. He built his fortune in construction and property before diversifying into the downstream energy sector. In November 2017 Al Amoudi was detained along with 11 princes and 38 current and former officials for charges of corruption.

Hospitality magnate Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber, 58, of MBI, has wealth of US$6.2bn, grabs the third place. MBI Group is an investment company operating in the hospitality, real estate, finance and oil and gas industries across Europe and the Middle East. He has a chain of luxury and budget hotels in Europe and Asia through JJW Hotels and Resorts.

Micky Jagtiani, 66, is an Indian-origin retail tycoon based in Dubai and the owner of retail chain Landmark group holds the 4^th place with US$5.5bn. Landmark Group has 2,200 outlets across 21 countries. Jagtiani started his business with baby products and then expanded into fashion, electronics, furniture and budget hotels in Middle East and Southeast Asia.

MA Yusuff Ali, 62, of Lulu group is an Indian migrant residing in Abu Dhabi is at 5^th with a net worth of US$5bn.  His Lulu Hypermarket chain has 124 locations across the Gulf, India and Egypt. He made the headlines for buying Scotland Yard in London for US$171mn and is developing it into a 92,000 square foot hotel. He has invested US$1.3bn in India to build hotels, malls and convention centres.

With US$4.3bn, Hussain Sajwani, 64, is in 6th place. He is the founder of real estate development company DAMAC Properties, one of the largest property development companies in Middle East. Sajwani started his entrepreneurial journey by setting up a catering company Global Logistics Services and turned it into real estate business when the Dubai government eased restrictions on property purchases by foreigners. Sajwani has teamed up with Donald Trump to develop two Trump-branded golf courses in Dubai.

Suhail Bahwan, 79, is in 7^th place with a net worth of US$3.7bn. Suhail Bahwan is the founder and chairman of Suhail Bahwan Group, growing to become the richest self-made Omani in the world. The group is a major producer of fertilizers, manufacturing over 1.4 tons of urea annually.

Islamic banking tycoon Abdullah Al Rajhi, 88, with a net worth of US$3.7bn, is the chairman of Al Rajhi Bank, which he co-founded with his three brothers. The Saudi Arabian bank is the world's largest Islamic bank by capital and it has over 600 branches.

With a net worth of US$3.6bn, B.R Shetty,75, founder of Abu Dhabi based NMC Healthcare and UAE Exchange is at 9^th rank. Shetty started building his empire in 1975 was initially interested in hospitals and then diversified into pharmaceuticals, financial services, retail, advertising and information technology. He is planning to produce the most expensive Indian movie based on the epic Mahabrata with a whopping US$200mn budget.

Construction tycoon Ravi Pillai, 64, the chairman of RP Group of Companies is at 10th rank with a net worth US$3.5bn. Born into a family of farmers he started with sub-contracting work and moved to Saudi Arabia in 1978 to set up Nasser Al-Hajri Corporation. The industrialization of Saudi Arabia and the construction boom in the Middle East fuelled Pillai’s wealth creation.

Where they live.

By country, UAE tops the list with 22 billionaires, followed by Saudi Arabia with 9 and Oman with 3. Transparent rules and regulations in UAE compared to other GCC countries attract more investments.

Table 2: Gulf Self Made Billionaires by Country

- No Rank change yoy * New to Top 5

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2018

By city, Dubai leads with 16 billionaires, followed by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi with 5 billionaires each. Majid Al Futtaim from Majid Al Futtaim group is the richest man in Dubai.

Table 3: Gulf Self Made Billionaires by City

↑ Rank increase yoy ↓ Rank decrease yoy - No Rank change yoy

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2018

Biggest Gainers

BR Shetty (75) of NMC Healthcare is the biggest gainer. His wealth has risen 125% to US$3.6bn backed by 88% increase in the UK listed NMC Healthcare. He is an Indian citizen who lives in UAE.

Sunny Varkey (60) of Gem Education is the second biggest gainer of this year with a rise of 87% change in wealth. Since 2013 Gems Education invested US$1bn to build 16 new schools and upgrade infrastructure which helped the company to achieve US$1bn revenue in 2017.

Industry Wise classification of Billionaires

The top performing sector is Retail, Healthcare and Financial Services with 5 billionaires each followed by Real Estate and Investments.

Apart from oil, retail is an active contributor to the GCC’s economic development. Under penetrated retail markets in the GCC countries other than UAE provides attractive opportunities to retailers in the region. Increasing urbanization, growing young population and a higher consumer spending wallet because of low taxes are transforming the retail market in GCC - forecasted to grow to US$300bn by 2021.

The rising prevalence of lifestyle-related diseases in GCC countries encourages private sector participation to build hospitals and upgrade the existing infrastructure offers investment opportunities for the private sector. The GCC healthcare market is projected to grow at a 12% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to US$71bn by 2020.

Table 4: GCC self-made billionaires by Industry

↑ Rank increase yoy ↓ Rank decrease yoy - No Rank change yoy

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2018

Interesting facts

·         7 GCC billionaires are from second generation and one from third generation

Table 5: Self-Made Score Card and Percentage of Gulf Self-made billionaires and top countries

Source: Hurun Research Institute 2018

Table 6: HURUN GULF SELF-MADE RICH LIST 2018

Nobody Knows China’s Rich Better!

Established as a research unit in 1999 by British accountant Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun Report Inc. has grown into a leading media and research house based in Shanghai, China, best-known for its rankings of the richest people in China, India and the rest of the world.

Hurun Report Inc. has four divisions: Hurun Report Media, a stable of digital media and four magazines; Hurun Research Institute; Hurun Conferences, an active events division targeting entrepreneurs and high net worth individuals; and Hurun Investments, a US$20m early stage venture capital fund with investments into tech, media, retail and education.

Download：

Hurun Gulf Self-made Billionaires 2018 ENG n CHN.xlsx

Press Release - Hurun Gulf Self-made Billionaires ENGLISH 180327.docx

新闻稿：《2018胡润海湾地区白手起家富豪榜》180327.docx 

For media inquiries, please contact:

Hurun Report

Porsha Pan

Tel: +86-21-50105808*601

Mobile: +86-139 1838 7446

Email: porsha.pan@hurun.net