April 15, 2017

Muscat: Suhail Bahwan of Oman is one of the top 10 new billionaires in the list of Forbes World’s Richest Arabs 2017.

He has been ranked sixth with a net worth of $4.1 billion.

"Suhail Bahwan started out as a trader sailing a dhow, he inherited from his father, and plied the waters between Oman and India. He never turned much of a profit, so in 1965 he moved from his small coastal village of Sur to Muscat, opening a shop in the souq. He sold fishing nets, boating accessories and building materials, before scoring his first license in 1968 with Seiko, followed by Toshiba. He and his late brother Saud became Toyota's distributors in Oman in 1975. Suhail's daughter Amal now helps run the Suhail Bahwan Group, which is the biggest privately-owned business in Oman, with interests in fertilizers, healthcare and construction," according to Forbes magazine.

While Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal retains the number one slot with an estimated US$18.7 billion fortune, he is followed by the Majid Al Futtaim which has business in several GCC countries including Oman.

The magazine estimates the Majid Al Futtaim fortune at $10.6 billion which owns and operates shopping malls in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Overall, Saudi Arabia claimed the highest number of billionaires with an aggregate net worth of $42bn.

The list was created based on stock prices as of February 17, 2017, for individual billionaires.

© Times of Oman 2017