For its 2018 ranking of the World Richest Arabs, the US-based Forbes Magazine has not included Saudi billionaires in the wake of the November anti-graft purge, which saw dozens of Saudi business tycoons locked up for several months
The 2018 ranking, which the magazine says is based on stock prices and exchange rates from February 9, 2018, is dominated by nationals of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt.
The Saudi anti-graft watchdog, supervised by Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, rounded early November around 200 figures including 11 Princes among whom the kingdom’s international business billionaire al-Waleed bin Talal credited with a net worth of $17 billion according to Bloomberg.
The Princes, senior officials and business bigwigs were detained and offered freedom in exchange with handover of part of their assets to the state. Majority of them including al Waleed reportedly signed monetary deals to gain their freedom.
The 2018 Forbes list only considers 31 Arab figures. Egyptian businessman, Nassif Sawiris tops the ranking with a net worth of $6.6 billion. He ranked fifth last year.
Five other Egyptians feature among the 31 Arabs listed by the magazine.
United Arab Emirates emerges as the country with the largest contingent with a total of seven billionaires. Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Ghurair and Majid Al-Futtaim rank respectively second and third with net worth put at 5.9 billion and $4.6 billion.
