Four UAE businessmen have been named in Forbes' annual list of the world's billionaires, which is made up of 1,226 people and headed by Carlos Slim Helu, a telecom mogul from Mexico worth $69bn.
Ranking 401, Mr Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, who is speaker of the Federal National Council and has been chief executive at Mashreq since 1990, is still worth a cool $2.9bn.
Mr Al Ghurair is part of a wealthy dynasty of businessmen and is joined on the list by his uncle Saif Al Ghurair, worth $2bn, who is the chairman of The Al Ghurair Group, a retail, real estate and manufacturing conglomerate based in Dubai.
The Al Ghurair's are joined by members of an equally well-known family in the UAE, the estranged brothers Abdulla and Majid Al Futtaim, worth $1.6bn and $1.1bn respectively.
Abdulla owns the retail and automotive conglomerate Al Futtaim, which is the franchise holder for Ikea and Marks & Spencer and the dealer for Toyota, Honda, Lexus, Jeep and other brands.
Majid Al Futtaim owns the eponymous retail conglomerate that owns and operates major malls throughout the Middle East and runs the Carrefour franchise.
Forbes began compiling its list of billionaires in 1987 with 140 names and this year's figure of 1,226 is an all time high, worth a total $4.6 trillion.
More than 50 reporters in 16 countries worked on compiling the Forbes 25th anniversary list, examining billionaires' net worth via assets such as stakes in public and private companies, real estate, yachts, art and cash, and accounting for levels of debt.
When looking at individuals owning privately held companies, such as those in the UAE, Forbes used estimates of revenues or profits and compared them with prevailing price-to-revenues or price-to-earnings ratios for similar public companies to estimate an overall worth.
Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft took the second spot again this year in the global ranking, worth $61bn, while the so-called 'Sage of Omaha' Warren Buffet, investor and head of Berkshire Hathaway is third on the list, worth $44bn. The list had the same top three as last year.
