The Middle East’s billionaires have accumulated their fortunes through a wide range of sectors, with the diversified sector topping the list, followed by telecoms and banking.
With $4.7 billion Mr. M.A. Yusuff Ali, Chairman and Managing Director of LuLu Group International, is the richest among the eight Indian billionaires residing in the Middle East with a total fortune of $22.9 billion according to Forbes Billionaires 2019 list.
The effect of the economic slowdown has been felt by the billionaires in the Middle East region too with their total worth net worth shrinking by nearly 5% to reach $191.3 billion compared with $201.4 billion in 2018. Only seven out of the 42 billionaires in the Middle East managed to raise their fortunes.
With a net worth of $3.9 billion, Mr. Ravi Pillai was the second richest self-made Indian in the Middle East followed by Mr. B.R. Shetty with a net worth of $3.9 billion.
Mr.Pillai migrated to Saudi Arabia after his small construction business in his native Kerala state went bust He started over again in 1978 and built his RP Group into a $7.8 billion construction heavyweight. The construction magnate has used his Gulf riches to invest back home, picking up stakes in banks, hotels and real estate.
A former pharma salesman, Mr.Shetty immigrated from Karnataka in South India to Abu Dhabi in 1973 to set up a healthcare empire.His biggest asset is London-listed NMC Health, one of the UAE’s largest hospital chains. Mr.Shetty has brought his money remittance firms UAE Exchange and Travelex Group under a new holding firm called Finablr. He also owns healthcare firm BR Life, which has a presence in India, Nepal, Africa and the Middle East.
Mr. Sunny Varkey, with a net worth of $2.4 B, is the founder of GEMS Education, the largest operator of private kindergarten-to-grade-12 schools in the world, and as of 2014 has over 130 schools in over a dozen countries. Today, GEMS has more than 250 schools worldwide.
One of GEMS Education Solutions’ projects is assisting and advising the state school system in the United Arab Emirates. In Ghana, it implements MGCubed– Making Ghana Girls Great – which equips two classrooms in each Ghanaian primary school with a computer, projector, satellite modem, and solar panels, creating an interactive distance-learning platform to deliver both formal in-school teaching and informal after-school training.
The project teaches 8,000 students in 72 Ghanaian schools, and is Sub-Saharan Africa’s first interactive distance-learning project.
With a net worth of $1.4 billion, Mr.ShamsheerVayalil, son-in-law of Mr. M.A. Yusuff Ali, founded VPS Healthcare, a network of hospitals, clinics and pharmacies.
Backed initially by his wealthy father-in-law, Mr.Vayalil started with one hospital in Abu Dhabi in 2007.VPS also owns the Rockland Hospital chain in Delhi and the VPS Lakeshore Hospital in Kochi.
Mr.Vayalil is also vice-chairman and managing director of investment firm Amanat Holdings, in which he has a 21% stake.
Mr.Vayalil started his career as a radiologist at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi. He worked there for 12 months. In 2007, he became an entrepreneur in the field of healthcare by opening his first hospital – LLH Hospital in Abu Dhabi. Over the next 12 years, Mr.Vayalil started 23 hospitals in four countries, under the banner of VPS Healthcare.
Mr.Vayalil is a member of the UAE Medical Council, a board member of the Abu Dhabi University, and a member of the Advisory Committee of the University of Sharjah’s College of Medicine. He is also the director of Kannur International Airport Ltd. and a member of the Kerala NRI Commission – a commission with quasi-judicial powers set up in the Indian state of Kerala to protect the rights, interests, and properties of Non-resident Indians (NRIs) hailing from Kerala.
With a net worth of $1.1 billion Mr. P.N.C Menon is a real estate business man based in Dubai. At the age of 26 Mr.Menon left Kerala for Oman where over the years he developed his interior decoration business into a profitable venture. In 1995, he started Sobha Ltd. in Bangalore named after his wife. Mr.Menon’sSobha Realty in the Middle East has operations spanning the UAE, Qatar, Oman and other Gulf countries.
Dr. Azad Moopen, Chairman and Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare, with a net worth of $1.1 billion, is among Forbes’ newest billionaires and is ranked 15th in the latest list of Middle East’s richest Indians. The hospital group is among the United Arab Emirates’ largest private healthcare players. The company spans a chain of hospitals in the Gulf region as well as in India, and a thriving pharmacy chain and medical clinics.
In the Gulf region, the entrepreneur is growing the five-hospital chain by adding six more hospitals in the next two years – three in Dubai, and one each in Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. Today, the 1,000-doctor chain treats 8 million patients annually.
Dr.Moopen has been involved in the development of healthcare facilities in India. MIMS hospitals directly employ about 3,000 people.
He participated in establishing the 600-bed tertiary care Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS) hospital at Kozhikode in Kerala in 2001. This was the first multi-specialty hospital in India to receive National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers accreditation in 2007. The second 150-bed MIMS hospital was set up at Kottakkal in Malappuram district in 2009.
MIMS Charitable Trust under his leadership established a rural health centre at the backward VazhayurPanchayat near Kozhikode in 2008 and adopted 7,000 BPL members for comprehensive free out-patient and in-patient care. The trust is adopting the BPL population in the three wards around MIMS in the Corporation of Kozhikode and also plans to conduct a breast and cervical cancer screening programme.
Ranked 14th in Forbes List of Richest Indians in the Middle East, Mr.AdeebAhamed, is the Managing Director, LuLu Financial Group and Twenty14 Holdings.
Under his leadership, LuLu Financial Group today is a global non-banking financial institution with 132 branches around the world and over 1,500 employees onboard the enterprise. Mr.Ahamed is also the managing director of Twenty14 Holdings, the hospitality arm of Abu Dhabi-based conglomerate Lulu Group International. It was founded in 2014 to capitalise on the growth in the global hospitality industry. The company currently has assets worth more than US$650m spread across the UK, Middle East and India.
In India, the group marked its entry into the hospitality sector with the acquisition of a hotel in Kochi in 2015, which is under renovation. Since then, Twenty14 Holdings has invested in two other properties in Bangalore, that are under various stages of development. With the first phase of development already underway in Kerala and Karnataka, the group is on the lookout for investment options in other major cities across India.
Twenty14 Holdings had also acquired the Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh – The Caledonian in Scotland for US$120mn and has also made a £110mn agreement with property developer Galliard Homes to create a luxurious five-star hotel at 1-5 Great Scotland Yard, the former headquarters of London’s Metropolitan Police. The firm co-owns the landmark Sheraton Oman Hotel in Muscat and owns the Steigenberger Hotel Business Bay in Dubai and three properties in India.
