The Sawiris family maintained its position as the richest family in the Arab world with an $11.6 billion net worth as of January 3, 2025, before US markets open, despite declining by $1 billion since March 8, 2024, when Forbes calculated its annual 2024 World’s Billionaires List. Egypt’s Mansour family reserved the second place in the ranking of the five richest Arab families with $5.8 billion, maintaining its March 2024 level of net worth. From Lebanon, the Mikati family comes in third place with $5.6 billion, while the Hariri family follows with $4.8 billion. The UAE’s Abdulla bin Ahmad Al Ghurair and his family ranked fifth with a net worth of $4.2 billion, adding $300 million to their wealth in nearly 10 months.
In the Arab region, there are 10 rich families, each with a net worth exceeding $1 billion, totaling $44.8 billion. The top five families make up 71.4% of this combined net worth.
Notably, Forbes has stopped tracking the fortunes of Saudi billionaires since 2018. Also, we only considered the members of the three commas club for ranking the richest families in the Arab region. As of January 3, 2025, here are the five richest Arab families for 2025:
1. Sawiris
Country: Egypt
Net worth: $11.6 billion
Change since March 8, 2024: $1 billion ↓
Image by Ammar Abd Rabbo / El Gouna Film Festival / AFP
Egypt’s wealthiest family saw a $1 billion decline in net worth over nearly 10 months, consolidating the combined fortunes of billionaire brothers Nassef and Naguib at $11.6 billion as of January 3, 2025. Samih briefly re-entered Forbes’ real-time billionaire ranking in 2022 after falling off in 2016. He is no longer among the billionaires.
Nassef Sawiris, who serves as the executive chair of Amsterdam-based OCI Global, has seen his wealth decline by $1 billion since March 8, 2024, reaching $7.8 billion as of January 3, 2025. OCI Global’s share price has also declined by 55.3% since March 8, 2024, reaching $11.5 (€11.2) on January 3, 2025. The decline comes along with an incident that caused the death of a subcontractor at OCI’s Beaumont Clean Ammonia site in early October 2024. He owns a stake of approximately 6% in the renowned German sportswear powerhouse adidas. Since March 8, the share price of adidas has risen by 23.6%, reaching $240.3 (€233.3) on January 3, 2025. Nassef is a supervisory director of adidas AG, the chairman of Aston Villa FC along with Wesley Edens, a member of the Board of Directors of JOE & THE JUICE, and a member of the J.P. Morgan International Council. The Egyptian billionaire has citizenships in Belgium and the UAE. In December 2023, Nassef’s NNS Group announced its plans to relocate from London/Luxembourg to Abu Dhabi, subject to approval from Abu Dhabi’s Global Market. Born in 1961, Nassef holds a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago, US, and in 2013, he became a member of the University of Chicago’s Board of Trustees.
On the other hand, Naguib, the chairman of Orascom TMT Investments, maintained his net worth at $3.8 billion since March 8, 2024. Naguib oversees La Mancha Holding, the private natural resource investment vehicle of the Sawiris family, with equity investments in Evolution Mining, Endeavour Mining, and Golden Star Resources. He is also the chairman of Ora, a real estate company.
2. Mansour
Country: Egypt
Net worth: $5.8 billion
Change since March 8, 2024: No change
Mohamed Mansour. Image by Mansour Group / website
Egypt’s Mansour family is the second richest Arab family, possessing a combined wealth of $5.8 billion, with $3.3 billion attributed to Mohamed Mansour’s personal net worth. Serving as the founder and chairman of Man Capital LLP, an investment arm of Mansour Group headquartered in London, Mohamed leads a family office that offers enduring financial support and strategic guidance to businesses and institutions across various industries in the UK and globally.
Mohamed oversees the Mansour Group, which was founded by his father Loutfy in 1952. Mansour Group is the exclusive distributor of GM vehicles and Caterpillar equipment in Egypt and several other countries. Mohamed served as the Minister of Transport in Egypt between 2006 and 2009.
For almost 10 months, Mohamed and his billionaire brothers Youssef and Yasseen retained the value of their wealth unaltered. Youssef, who founded Mantrac and served as chairman from 1977 to 1992, boasts a net worth of $1.3 billion, while Yasseen, the chairman and group CEO of Palm Hills Developments, holds $1.2 billion. Yasseen is also the chairman McDonald’s Egypt. The wealthy siblings also have interests in the Mansour Group.
3. Mikati
Country: Lebanon
Net worth: $5.6 billion
Change since March 8, 2024: No change
Najib Mikati. Image by Daniel Leal-Olivas / AFP / POOL
Despite the continuous war in Lebanon, the net worths of Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s prime minister, and his billionaire brother Taha have remained unchanged at $2.8 billion each since March 8, 2024. The two brothers are the cofounders of the Beirut-based holding company M1 Group, a family-owned holding with interests in various sectors such as telecom, real estate, aircraft financing, fashion and energy.
Najib began his political career as the Minister of Public Works and Transport, from 1998 to 2004. In 2000, he was elected for the first time as a Member of Parliament representing Tripoli. He briefly served as Prime Minister in 2005 and held the position again from 2011 to 2014, and assumed the office again in 2021 for a third nonconsecutive term. Najib and Taha established Investcom in 1982, selling satellite phones during the peak of Lebanon’s civil war. They later ventured into Africa, constructing cellphone towers in countries like Ghana, Liberia, and Benin, according to Forbes. Investcom went public on the London Stock Exchange in 2005, and in 2009, MTN of South Africa acquired the Mikatis’ shares for $3.6 billion.
4. Hariri
Country: Lebanon
Net worth: $4.8 billion
Change since March 8, 2024: $100 million ↑
Source: Ayman Hariri/ x
Bahaa, Ayman, and Fahed Hariri inherited their riches from their father, the deceased Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was a billionaire. The trio divested their shares in the family’s Saudi Oger, a Saudi-based construction and contracting company, to their sibling Saad Hariri. Saad, who was delisted from the billionaires’ roster in 2019, like his father, also held the position of Prime Minister in Lebanon.
Bahaa, 58, the richest among his brothers at $2.1 billion, is the founder and chairman of Horizon Group, a real estate holding company with investments in Jordan and Lebanon. He is the majority owner of Globe Express Services, a logistics company with a presence in more than 100 countries. He now lives in Switzerland.
Ayman, 46, with a net worth of $1.4 billion, invests in startups through New York-based Red Sea Ventures. Its investments include Nest, which is now part of Google. Their younger brother, Fahed, 44, invests in the real estate sector in New York, Paris, and Monte Carlo. While Ayman lives in France, Fahed is based in the UK.
Fahed’s $100 million net worth increase in nearly 10 months to $1.3 billion raised the combined net worth of the Hariri family to $4.8 billion on January 3, 2025, from $4.7 billion on March 8, 2024.
5. Abdulla bin Ahmad Al Ghurair & family
Country: UAE
Net worth: $4.2 billion
Change since March 8, 2024: $300 million ↑
Source: Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation مؤسسة عبد الله الغرير/ facebook
Abdulla bin Ahmad Al Ghurair & family witnessed a net worth increase of $300 million in almost 10 months to $4.2 billion in line with Mashreq’s share price hike of 11.9% from March 8, 2024, to $59.1 (AED 217) on January 3, 2025.
Abdulla Al Ghurair founded Mashreq, a Dubai-based bank, in 1967. He stepped down as chairman in October 2019. His son Abdul Aziz Abdulla Al Ghurair is now the chairman of the bank. Now, the bank operates in the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Qatar, the UK and the US. Its total assets hit $69.3 billion (AED 254.4 billion), as of September 30, 2024.
Abdulla Al Ghurair founded the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation (AGF) in 2015 as a non-profit philanthropic organization. Ten years ago, Al Ghurair pledged one-third of his group’s assets to AGF which invests in education programs in the UAE.
