- Prince Alwaleed bin Talal
AT LEAST $15.7 BILLION | 64 YEARS OLD | SAUDI ARABIA
Primary Position: Chairman, Kingdom Holding Company
Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal born 7 March 1955 is a Saudi businessman, investor, philanthropist, and a member of the Saudi royal family. He was listed on Time magazine’s Time 100, an annual list of the hundred most influential people in the world, in 2008
He is the founder, chief executive officer and 95-percent owner of the Kingdom Holding Company, a Forbes Global 2000 company with investments in companies in the financial services, tourism and hospitality, mass media, entertainment, retail, agriculture, petrochemicals, aviation, technology and real-estate sectors.2. Aliko Dangote
AT LEAST $10.6 BILLION | 61 YEARS OLD | NIGERIA
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, founded and chairs Dangote Cement, the continent’s largest cement producer. He owns nearly 85% of publicly-traded Dangote Cement through a holding company. Dangote Cement produces 45.6 million metric tons annually and has operations in 10 countries across Africa.Dangote also owns stakes in publicly-traded salt, sugar and flour manufacturing companies. Dangote Refinery has been under construction for three years and is expected to be one of the world’s largest oil refineries once complete.3. Mohammed Al-Amoudi
Mohammed Al Amoudi, son of a Saudi father and an Ethiopian mother, has accumulated a portfolio of construction, agriculture, and energy companies. Al Amoudi controls a collection of industrial assets in Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia. They include Svenska Petroleum Exploration and Preem, Sweden’s biggest oil refiner. He owns Addis Ababa, Ethiopia-based Midroc Gold, the country’s biggest miner, as well as hotels, an oil company, and coffee and rice farms.
4. Mohamed Al Jaber
Aljaber founded MBI International Holding Group, a London-based hotel, food and real estate company. His JJW Hotels & Resorts owns and manages more than 50 properties in the U.K., France, Egypt, Austria, and Portugal. He also controls oil and gas services company, Continent oil and food processing group, Ajwa.
5. Iskander Makhmudov
Iskander Makhmudov is the main owner of copper producer UGMK, which has controlling stakes in more than 300 companies in nine regions of Russia. Makhmudov is also a shareholder in Transmashholding, Russia’s largest maker of locomotives and rail equipment. Born in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, he lived in Tashkent and graduated from a local university with a degree in oriental studies.
6. Suleiman Kerimov
Suleiman Kerimov gets most of his fortune from his 82% stake in Russia’s biggest gold producer, Polyus.A trained economist, Kerimov made a career investing in distressed companies in Russia.
7. Azim Premji
Azim Premji is an Indian tech magnate and the chairman of Wipro India’s third-largest outsourcer. Wipro has an innovation centre in Silicon Valley, which is focused on developing new technologies and collaborating with startups. In September 2018, Wipro won a landmark $1.6 billion,10-year contract from Alight Solutions of Illinois.
8. Mohamed Mansour
Mohamed Mansour oversees family conglomerate Mansour Group, which was founded by his father Loutfy in 1952 and has 60,000 employees. Mansour established General Motors dealerships in Egypt in 1975, later becoming one of GM’s biggest distributors worldwide. Mansour Group also has exclusive distribution rights for Caterpillar equipment in Egypt and seven other African countries. He served as Egypt’s Minister of Transportation from 2006 to 2009 under the Hosni Mubarak regime.
9. Syed Mokhtar AlBukhary
Low-profile Syed Mokhtar AlBukhary started as a rice trader after dropping out of high school.The bulk of his wealth comes from stakes in listed conglomerates MMC Corp. and DRB-HICOM. MMC’s operations span ports, logistics, construction and engineering while DRB-HICOM is an automotive giant that is also into property and education.
10. Abdulsamad Rabiu
Abdulsamad Rabiu is the founder of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate active in cement production, sugar refining and real estate. In December 2018, Rabiu merged his privately-owned Kalambaina Cement company with listed firm Cement Co. of Northern Nigeria, which he controlled. His BUA Group also owns Obu Cement, which expanded its production with a new line in 2018. Rabiu, the son of a businessman, inherited land from his father. He set up his own business in 1988 importing iron, steel and chemicals.
Source: Forbes and Bloomberg
