CAIRO: Forbes magazine recently came out with their annual “World's Richest Royalty” list where there was no shortage of Arab billionaires. The only two rulers who received a modest gain were King Abdullah bin Abul Aziz of Saudi Arabia and Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar, whose fortunes amount to $18 billion and $2.4 billion, respectively. King Abdullah landed the number three spot while Al-Thani settled in number eight. Royalty was, however, not immune to the tough economic climate, with five seeing decreases in their fortunes. Yet 10 out of the 15 royals on the list have remained as rich as they were a year ago. The re-elected ruler of the United Arab Emirates and hereditary ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahayan, saw a $3 billion decrease in his fortune from last year to leave him at $15 billion. This decrease landed him the number four spot on the list this year. The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, received a $10 billion bailout package last December from its brother state, Abu Dhabi, to try to ease its heavy debt load of $109 billion. Maktoum personally saw the worst decrease of $7.5 billion and ended at $4.5 billion to clinch the number five spot. This has been the second year in a row that he has suffered the biggest decrease in Forbes' annual list. Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al Sabah of Kuwait felt a 12 percent decrease in his fortune to put him at number 13, leaving him with only $350 million. King Mohammed IV of Morocco secured the number seven spot with an unchanged fortune of $2.5 billion. Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman also had an unchanged fortune of $700 million and holds the number 11 spot.
