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Billionaires in the UAE have seen their net worth fall as the coronavirus pandemic continues to take a devastating toll on many businesses worldwide.
According to the latest data from Forbes, which tracks the ups and downs of the richest people on earth on a daily basis, the country’s ultra-wealthy have posted declines in their fortunes ranging from $5 million to $48 million.
As of February 17, Mashreq bank founder Abdulla bin Ahmad Al Ghurair is the richest person in the UAE and 809th richest in the world.
His net worth fell by $34 million or 0.90 percent to $3.7 billion on Wednesday compared to the previous trading day.
Majid Al Futtaim, who founded retail giant Majid Al Futtaim Holding, came second on Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires list and is the only Emirati billionaire who hasn’t seen his $3.6 billion net worth slide.
The third-richest billionaire, property magnate Hussain Sajwani, is currently worth $2.4 billion, down by $48 million or 1.96 percent.
Sajwani’s DAMAC, which owns the only Trump-branded golf course in the Middle East, reported a net loss of 1.04 billion dirhams ($283 million) in 2020.
In a statement issued this week, Sajwani attributed the decline to the coronavirus pandemic, which he said has had a “dramatic” impact on the country’s tourism sector.
“2020 was a very tough year for all property developers in the UAE and DAMAC felt the negative impact just the same. With COVID-19 still prevailing across the world, tourism has dramatically fallen, which has been a critical force that drives Dubai’s economy and boosts its property market,” Sajwani said.
The last billionaire on Forbes’ list is Abdulla Al Futtaim, owner of Dubai-based conglomerate Al Futtaim Group. His net worth dropped by $5 million or 0.24 percent to $2.1 billion.
World’s richest
Worldwide, the richest person as of today is Jeff Bezos, founder of e-commerce giant Amazon with a net worth of $190.3 billion, overtaking Tesla’s Elon Musk with a net worth of $173.4 billion, who came in the second place.
Both the billionaires’ fortunes also fell, with Bezos posting a decline of $466 million and Musk seeing a bigger drop of $3.9 billion.
Bernard Arnault, who overseas an empire of 70 brands including Louis Vuitton and Sephora, came third on the list with fortunes growing by $3 billion to $157.9 billion, followed by Microsoft’s Bill Gates ($123.9 billion) and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg with $100.2 billion.
(Reporting by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria)
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