UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also known as MBZ, heads the family
The Al Nahyan royal family of Dubai which owns a Rs 4,078 crore presidential palace (the size of three Pentagons), eight private jets and a popular football club is the richest in the world, a report by GQ said.
UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also known by his initials MBZ, heads the family and has 18 brothers and 11 sisters. The Emirati royal also has nine children and 18 grandchildren.
The family own about six per cent of the world’s oil reserves, the Manchester City football club and holds stakes in several famous companies — from singer Rihanna’s beauty brand Fenty to Elon Musk’s Space X.
The president’s younger brother Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan al Nahyan has a collection of over 700 cars including the world’s largest SUV along with five Bugatti Veyrons, a Lamborghini Reventon, a Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR, a Ferrari 599XX and a McLaren MC12.
في كلّ ركنٍ قصة من وحي تاريخ دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة!
اكتشفوا قصص تراث الأمة الغني والعظيم وخططوا لزيارتكم إلى #قصر_الوطن اليوم. #في_أبوظبيpic.twitter.com/Uv4zQH6bXb— Qasr Al Watan (@QasrAlWatanTour) November 1, 2022
The family lives in the gilded Qasr Al-Watan presidential palace in Abu Dhabi, the biggest out of the several such palaces it owns in UAE. Spread across nearly 94 acres, the large-domed palace has a chandelier made of 350,000 crystals and houses prized historic artefacts.
Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president’s brother, heads the family’s chief investment company whose value has shot by almost 28,000 per cent in the last five years. The company, currently valued at $235 billion, owns agriculture, energy, entertainment and maritime businesses and employs tens of thousands of people.
Apart from UAE, the Dubai royals also own luxury properties across the globe including in Paris and London. The family’s former head was nicknamed the “landlord of London” for the vast array of properties owned by him in UK’s most posh neighbourhoods.
According to a report by the New Yorker in 2015, the Dubai royal family had assets comparable to the British royal family.
In 2008, MBZ’s Abu Dhabi United Group bought the UK football team Manchester City for Rs 2,122 crore. The company also owns 81 per cent of the City Football Group that also operates Manchester City, Mumbai City, Melbourne City and New York City football clubs.
