Monday 15 March 2010

What Happened To Kuwait’s Billionaires ?!




Forbes pulibshed their latest World’s Billionaires Ranking. What stroke me the most was the dropping out of most of Kuwait’s billionaires. In 2010, there is only one Kuwaiti (family) ranked, Al-Khorafi. But in the previous three years (2007-2009), Kuwait had three more people in the list, which are Qutaiba and Bassam Al Ghanim, and Mohammed Al Bahar.
My question is were these people that much affected by the financial crisis? And why did their wealth suffer in the year of the recovery (2009) rather than the year when the markets and the global economy were hit the most (2008)? I guess the Al Ghanim brothers were seriously hit by the Gulf Bank losses. But what about Mr. Al-Bahar? Why did the NBK’s Chairman’s wealth fall in 2009, a year when most markets witnessed substantial returns? NBK’s stock appreciated by more than 4% for the year. Were his other holdings hit that bad?END

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