Alwaleed tops Arabian Business Rich List with $21.3bn

The prince has seen his wealth rise by 4.4 percent to $21.3bn over the course of 2011.

Once again, this figure has been verified by the prince’s private office.

Prince Alwaleed has had another action-packed year. In between making new investments in Africa, he has also found the time to sign off the construction contract to built the world’s tallest tower, which will be based in Jeddah.

He also recently struck a deal with the Bloomberg news channel to launch his own channel.

Kingdom Holding Company is the largest foreign investor in the US, with stakes in Apples, Time Warner and Citi.

Second on the list is Mohammed bin Issa Al Jaber, the chairman of MBI International, whose private office has confirmed his wealth at $12.75bn.

It has been a choppy year for the Vienna-based hospitality magnate, who at one stage had the majority of his firm’s assets frozen during a UK court battle with Standard Chartered Bank. However, those assets were unfrozen following a settlement in December.

Last week, Al Jaber confirmed that he was buying his Scotsman Hotel Group out of administration, and injecting a further $100m into the chain during 2012.

A further $1.5bn will be added to Al Jaber’s MBI Group during the same period.

Staying at third on the list is the Saudi Arabia-based Olayan family, in which Lubna Olayan plays a prominent part. The top three entries on the list are therefore the same as last year.

Issam Alzahid – the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s Alzahid Group – moves up one place to fourth, with $10.7bn. Hard on his heels is last year’s fourth-placed entry, construction tycoon Mohammad Al Amoudi, who has $10.4bn.

All of the top five entries hail from Saudi Arabia, which once again provides the bulk of the names on our list. Altogether 30 Saudi businessmen and women are included.

The next most prominent country is the UAE, which has four entries, followed by Kuwait and Qatar, which have three each.

Click here to view Arabian Business Rich List 2011