Just 37 years old, he became Jordan’s first business billionaire in June this year after his stake in construction giant Arabtec was raised to 20.5 percent. Ismaik had taken over as the CEO after joining the company a year earlier, following the purchase of a 22 percent stake in Arabtec by Aabar Investments, which also resulted in the departure of founder Riad Kamal.
But shortly after achieving billionaire status, Ismaik resigned from the company as its share price plunged – only to recover after Aabar increased its stake to 34.93 percent. Having earlier sold a huge chunk of shares to Aabar, Ismaik is still registered as the owner of 11.8 percent of Arabtec shares. According to Reuters he is looking to offload these in the new future, but for now at least, the shares — and their value — can be attributed to him.
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