Bin Talal Alsaud
Photo: AP
Shari Arison
7 Israelis on Forbes' list of richest Mideast billionaires
Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud named richest in the region; Bank Hapoalim owner Shari Arison only woman on list
Forbes named Israelis Yitzhak Tshuva, Lev Leviev and Shari Arison among the 20 richest billionaires in the Middle East.
Business tycoons Stef Wertheimer (ranked 10th), brothers Yuli Sami Ofer (14) and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan (20) were also included in the list, which was published by the American magazine on Friday.
Arison, Bank Hapoalim's controlling shareholder, was the only woman on the list at the 11th spot. Tshuva, who bought Manhattan's Plaza Hotel in 2005 for $675 million, was ranked 13th, while diamond mogul Leviev, who paid a reported $525 million for the historic New York Times building in April, was ranked 12th.
Interestingly, only one in the top 20, Mohammed Al Amoudi, actually made his fortune from oil, Forbes reported, with the rest being "mere beneficiaries from all the oil money sloshing through the region".
Topping the list was Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, who was ranked 13th in the world in March, then worth $20.3 billion. In July, the prince took public his Kingdom Holding Co., a conglomerate of banking, media, real estate and hotel investments, raising $2.3 billion. He still has a substantial stake in American financial giant Citigroup.
Ranked second was Kuwaiti businessman Nasser Al-Kharafi and his family, with an estimated fortune of $11.5 billion.
The region's richest billionaires, who hail from six countries, made their money in nine industries and were worth $123 billion in March, according to Forbes.
