HRH Prince Alwaleed
$21.30bn
Banking & Finance
HRH Prince Alwaleed
Current rank: 1
Last year's rank: 1Last year's wealth: $20.40bn
Eight years of publishing the Arabian Business Rich List and eight successive years at the very top. The last twelve months saw the prince consolidate his position as the world’s richest Arab, with his fortune nudging up $900m to $21.3bn. Once again, this figure has been verified by his private office.
And it’s been another action packed year for the prince. Last month he confirmed he will be making new investments in Nigeria, through his company Kingdom Zephyr Africa Management, which already has interests in hotels, banking, cement production, oil and charity projects. He also opened the $100m Movenpick Ambassador Hotel in Accra, a joint venture between his Kingdom Holding Company and the government of Ghana.
But 2011 was also the year of the mega-projects for him: the long awaited confirmation of plans to construct the world’s tallest building, Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, were unveiled. He also struck a deal with Bloomberg to launch his own news channel, with both projects due to get under way in the New Year.
Today, Kingdom Holding Company, of which he owns 95 percent, covers 39 investments in seven sectors. It is the largest foreign investor in the US, with stakes in the likes of News Corporation, Time Warner, Apple and Citi. Regionally, major players from Samba Financial Group to Savola all have the KHC stamp on their shareholdings.
Don’t expect the prince to slow down anytime soon. As he told us a year ago, “There’s no limit for success. Success is achievement, grow your business and plough back some of your benefits to improve the lives of people, it’s a cycle… There is no top. The moment you reach the top you go downhill. If you reach the top of the hill what happens next? You have to go down. I’m not planning to go down. As far as I am concerned, you can never reach the top of the hill.”
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