Bloomberg has released its 2023 list of the richest families in the world, with the Al Nahyan family, controlled by UAE President Prince Mohammed, topping the list with a fortune of $305 billion. This family defeated the Walmart family. The Al Nahyan family's wealth comes mainly from its oil industry in Abu Dhabi.
The late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan, the "father of the nation" of the UAE, was the elder of the Al Nahyan family and long controlled the country's most abundant oil production. His eldest son, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, led the family's aggressive expansion into non-oil industries and founded the investment company International Holding Co(IHC), which is engaged in real estate, catering, tourism, manufacturing, agriculture and other fields. IHC is reportedly a publicly traded company, and its share price has skyrocketed by nearly 7,000% in the past four years.
The third generation of the family is Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan, the current head of state of the United Arab Emirates. After he succeeded his brother Khalifa as the UAE in 2022, the Al Nahyan family made its debut on Bloomberg's list of the richest families and quickly rose to the top.
In addition to the Al Nahyan family, the Al Thanis family of Qatar's royal family, who have also amassed their wealth through the oil business, are also on the list for the first time. This reflects "the recent reshuffle of global commercial markets caused by oil-related assets, which is an unprecedented phenomenon". Bloomberg stresses that the oil families of the three Gulf states (UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia) that make it to the list of the richest families actually own far more assets than the most conservative estimates.
In addition to the three oil families in the Middle East, the other seven richest families are the Walton family, which founded Walmart, a large supermarket chain in the United States, the Mars family, the Mars family, the Koch family, the Koch family, the Ambani family, the Ambani family, and the Thomson family, which controls the Thomson Reuters Group. The Hermès family, the French luxury brand, and the Wertheimer family, who own the boutique brand Chanel.
In addition, other families include the Koch family, which controls the American manufacturer, the Ambani family, the Thomson family of the Thomson Reuters Group, the Hermès family, the French luxury brand, and the Wertheimer family, the majority shareholder of Chanel.
Bloomberg estimates that the Hermès family still holds about 66% of the brand, with a total asset market value of about $150.9 billion, ranking third. The family has always refused to be part of the LVMH group.
The 10 richest families have a 43% market value in 2023 compared to 2022, and Bloomberg concludes that most of the families on the list have been in business for several generations, accumulating wealth in a gradual way, and are representative of the long war.