Number plate sells for $4.2mn at auction

An Abu Dhabi businessman on Saturday paid a staggering 15.4 million dirhams ($4.19 million) for licence plate number ‘9’ at an auction in the emirate.

The purchase by the unnamed businessman makes the plate the third most expensive in the world, pushing Abu Dhabi licence plate number ‘6’ into fourth place in the world rankings.

The UAE now holds the ten most expensive plates in the world.

“The number 9, the fifth single digit number in category 5 from Abu Dhabi police has entered the club of most expensive plates in the world like the other four single digit numbers,” Abdulla Matar Al-Mannaei, managing director of Emirates Auction, said in a statement.

Licence number ‘29’ was also sold for 4 million dirhams during Saturday’s auction.

An Abu Dhabi businessman broke the record for the world’s most expensive number plate in February, paying 52.2 million dirhams ($14.5 million) for plate number ‘1’.

RELATED: Plate '1' smashes world record at $14.5mn

Khouri more than doubled the previous record held by Talal Ali Mohammed Khouri who paid 25.2 million dirhams for plate number ‘5’ in May 2007, also paying 11 million dirhams for the number '7' plate at the same auction.

Proceeds from the Abu Dhabi auctions - which are held on behalf of the emirate's police force - have so far raised over $105 million for the construction of a national rehabilitation centre for traffic accident victims, the first of its kind in the UAE.

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