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3 Saudi startups on the Forbes list of 50 startups

3 Saudi startups on the Forbes list of 50 startups

3 Saudi startups on the Forbes list of 50 startupsJeddah : Three Saudi startups figure prominently on the Forbes list of 50 startups to watch in the Arab world this year.

These startups are those who have not yet received big-ticket funding but are looking promising for the future, Forbes said, releasing the list last month.

On number six in Forbes list of 50 is Halayalla, a booking platform for sports and entertainment. It was founded by Nadeem and Faheem Bakhsh, Farrukh Bandey, Yousef Shanti in 2016. On number 26 is Near Motion, a customer engagement tool, founded by Faisal Alferdos in 2015. Figuring on number 34 is Maharah, a booking app for home maintenance services, founded by Mujahed Marghlani, Saleem Barnawi, Ahmed Mereyani in 2015.

On number 42 figures Sawerly, an online platform to book photographers. It was founded by Hussein Attar and Mohamed Al-Zahrani in 2013. Forbes published a list of 182 Saudi entrepreneurs representing 100 startups last year. They included 29 women. They have startups in 23 sectors. There are 39 startups in Jeddah, 37 in Riyadh and 10 in Al-Khobar.

Saudi Arabia has given utmost importance to entrepreneurship as part of Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program to encourage Saudis to start own businesses. It extends all support for skills development in order to help young Saudi men and women find solutions for environmental, housing, educational and other problems. Many Saudis now earn millions of riyals in profits from their small business enterprises and provide employment to others.

Fadi Yahya, a young businessman, said he was able to enter the business field very earl. He began his business eight years ago. Before that he had earned some experience by working for a non-profit organization while studying in the university. “This experience encouraged me to start a business of my own,” he told Al-Hayat Arabic daily. Yahya’s first project was in the design field. He later received King Abdullah Foreign Scholarship and went to the US to obtain a Master’s degree. There he started a technological project which did not last long. He returned to the Kingdom with another technological project.

—HA/UNA-OIC

Mukesh Ambani with $40bn, richest among 121 billionaires in India: Forbes

Mukesh Ambani with $40bn, richest among 121 billionaires in India: Forbes

Mukesh AmbaniBy Arul Louis,

New York : India has 121 billionaires — 19 more than last year — making them the third largest group of the ultra-rich after those from the US and China, according to Forbes, the business magazine that produces an annual list.

Mukesh Ambani, the energy and petrochemicals magnate, who keeps his standing as the richest Indian, is richer by $16.9 billion in 2018 with assets of $40.1 billion, according to the magazine’s list released online on Tuesday.

He moved up to the 19th global rank on the list of 2,208 billionaires worldwide compiled by Forbes. In 2017, he ranked 33rd with $23.2 billion.

The US has 585 billionaires and China 373 this year on the Forbes tally, which it calls “The Three Comma Club” for the punctuation used in writing out fully the billion in numbers.

In 2017, there were 102 Indians on the list.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the world’s richest man with assets valued at $112 billion, overtaking Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates whose fortunes are valued at $90 billion and investor Warren Buffet with $84 billion.

In 2017, Gates ranked first globally with $86 billion, Buffet second with $75.6 billion and Bezos third with $72.8 billion.

Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post newspaper, is the first person to cross the $100 billion mark in assets, Forbes said. His fortunes rose by $39.2 billion over the past year, which Forbes said is the list’s biggest one-year jump ever.

Gates, who heads the world’s biggest philanthropic organisation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has donated a lot of his assets to charities.

The software entrepreneur Azim Premji moves to the second richest Indian spot in 2018, passing Lakshmi Mittal, the international steel tycoon, according to the magazine.

Premji moved up from the 72nd global spot in 2017 with $14.9 billion, to the 58th rank with $18.8 billion this year.

Although the value of his assets have increased over the past year, Lakshmi Mittal slid to the 62nd rank on the 2018 global list and to the third spot among Indians with $18.5 billion from the 56th worldwide rank with $16.4 billion in 2017.

The richest Indian woman on the Forbes list is Savitri Jindal of the Jindal steel and power conglomerate, who ranks 176th globally on the Forbes list with $8.8 billion.

Next is the biotech entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw at 629 with $3.6 billion.

The 39-year-old financial technology entrepreneur Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who ranks 1,394th globally with $1.7 billion, is the youngest Indian on the Forbes list.

Software company HCL’s founder Shiv Nadar is the fourth richest Indian on the list with $14.6 billion and is ranked 98 globally.

Sun Pharmaceuticals founder Dilip Shanghvi ranks next as the fifth riches Indian with $12.8 billion at the 115th global spot.

The Indian pharmaceutical sector has the most number of billionaires – 16.

It is followed by consumer goods with 15 billionaires, real estate with nine, and software services and diversified investments with eight each.

Nirav Modi, the jeweller who has reportedly been linked to an alleged $2 billion-fraud involving the Punjab National Bank, was not on last year’s or this year’s global list of billionaires, but a separate list of only Indian billionaires published by Forbes in October ranked him 85th with assets worth $1.8 billion.

Many people of the Indian diaspora also figure on the Forbes list. Construction magnate Pallonji Mistry, who is listed as Irish, is ranked 66th with $17.8 billion.

There are nine others of Indian origin with assets over $2 billion from Australia, Britain, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the US.

The top Indian billionaires

Here is a list of the richest Indians on the Forbes list with assets over $8 billion. (Their global rank is shown before their names and the sector and value of assets as listed by Forbes follow their names.)

19 Mukesh Ambani ($40.1 billion, petrochemicals, oil & gas)

58 Azim Premji ($18.8 billion , software services)

62 Lakshmi Mittal ($18.5 billion, steel)

98 Shiv Nadar ($14.6 billion, software services)

115 Dilip Shanghvi ($12.8 billion, pharmaceuticals)

127 Kumar Birla ($11.8 billion, commodities)

143 Uday Kotak ($10.7 billion, banking)

151 Radhakishan Damani ($10 billion, investments, retail)

154 Gautam Adani ($9.7 billion, commodities, ports)

170 Cyrus Poonawalla ($9.1 billion, vaccines)

176 Savitri Jindal ($8.8 billion, steel)

176 Sunil Mittal ($8.8 billion, telecom)

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

—IANS

Mukesh Ambani tops Forbes’ 2017 list of India’s 100 richest tycoons

Mukesh Ambani tops Forbes’ 2017 list of India’s 100 richest tycoons

Mukesh Ambani tops Forbes' 2017 list of India's 100 richest tycoonsNew Delhi : With a net worth of $38 billion, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani has topped Forbes’ annual list of India’s 100 richest tycoons of 2017, a statement said here on Thursday.

“Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani has topped Forbes’s annual list of India’s 100 richest tycoons, with a net worth of $38 billion. To put it in context, this is equal to the entire GDP of the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, as per World Bank Data 2016 estimates,” the statement said.

Forbes India will release the 2017 India Rich List by way of a special issue that hits the stands on November 6, 2017.

The richest newcomer in the list is Wadia Group of companies Chairman Nusli Wadia (No. 25, $5.6 billion).

At $19 billion, the net worth of Wipro’s Azim Premji — who jumped two places up over last year to become the second richest Indian on the list — is almost equal to Afghanistan’s GDP of $19.4 billion, the statement said.

The Hinduja family maintained the third position ($18.4 billion) in the list.

Last year’s second richest Indian, Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharmaceuticals (No. 9, $12.1 billion) is the biggest dollar loser on the list as his net worth fell by $4.8 billion.

“The Indian economy is still grappling with the impact of demonetisation and GST. This makes The Forbes India Rich List 2017 edition special since it features those who have faced the challenges head on and continued to deliver phenomenal results. The list has come to stand as a testament to brand India and also puts many emerging successful entrepreneurs on the global map,” said Forbes India CEO Joy Chakraborthy.

According to the list, the total wealth of India’s top 100 billionaires, which stands at a whopping $479 billion, is more than the country’s foreign exchange reserves estimated at $402.5 billion in September 2017.

The entry point to the list is at its highest ever, at $1.46 billion. Last year, the minimum amount required to make the list was $1.25 billion, 17 percent lower than this year.

The aggregate wealth of the top 100 has risen 26 percent over last year.

—IANS

S.P. Jain business school in Forbes top 20

S.P. Jain business school in Forbes top 20

S.P. Jain Global School of Global ManagementNew Delhi : S.P. Jain Global School of Global Management, which has campuses in Sydney, Singapore and Dubai apart from Mumbai, has been ranked among the top 20 institutes in the ‘Best International MBAs One-year programmes’ category of Forbes biennial rankings of business schools.

The business school was ranked 16th in the rankings published earlier this week. IMD in Switzerland, Insead in France, and IE Business School in Spain were ranked first, second and third respectively.

This is the fifth time in a row that the institute has found its way into the top 20 one-year MBA programme institutes.

“Forbes’ biennial ranking of the world’s best international MBA programmes is based solely on the return on investment achieved by graduates. This year, the Forbes ranking compared the earnings of the Class of 2012 in their first five years post-MBA course,” a statement from S.P. Jain School of Global Management said.

The institute, it added, “reported close to a six-fold increase in salaries — from a pre-MBA salary of $9,000 to $50,000 (in 2016). The business school has also been ranked one in salary growth for all five years.”

“Campus placements are often used to measure a school’s success. However, top rankings like Forbes, Financial Times and The Economist measure graduate outcomes over a period of time. This is a superior measure of success as they consider long-term student growth, and not just starting salaries,” business school President Nitish Jain said in the statement.

The business school started operations with its Dubai campus in 2004. The Mumbai campus, its latest, was established in 2015.

—IANS

World’s 20 richest $70bn poorer : Forbes

World’s 20 richest $70bn poorer : Forbes

forbesNew York, March 1 (IANS) More than $70 billion has been wiped off the wealth of the world’s 20 richest people following a slump on global financial markets, according to Forbes’ latest annual ranking of billionaires. India has the fourth largest number of billionaires – 84.

The combined wealth of the top 20 fell from $899 billion last year to $827 billion, The Guardian reported on Tuesday. The Forbes report also showed that the number of billionaires dropped from a record 1,826 in 2015 to 1,810.

Four Indians figure in the list of top 100 billionaires in the world: Mukesh Ambani ($19.3 bn), Dilip Shanghvi ($16.7 bn), Aziz Premji ($15 bn) and Shiv Nadar ($11.1 bn), the report said.

According to the Guardian, the list is dominated by men. Out of 1,810 billionaires, just 190 are women. The figure was 197 in 2015.

The biggest loser was Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecom tycoon who saw his fortune drop from $77.1 billion to $50 billion in a year.

Bill Gates has been crowned the richest man in the world for the third year in a row, although the Microsoft founder’s fortune also dipped from $79.2 billion to $75 billion.

The biggest gainer was Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook boss whose wealth rose by $11.2 billion to give him a total net worth of $44.6 billion.

Zuckerberg is the sixth richest person in the world, behind Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, Slim, investor Warren Buffett, Amancio Ortega, the businessman behind the Zara fashion empire, and Gates.

The only female billionaires in the top 20 inherited their wealth, including Liliane Bettencourt, the heir to the L’Oreal empire, and Alice Walton, daughter of the Walmart founder, Sam Walton.

The US remains home to the most billionaires at 540, compared to 536 last year. There are 489 in Europe, the Guardian reported.

The number and value of billionaires in Asia-Pacific also grew. But the number in the Middle East and Africa fell from 106 to 90 and in the Americas, excluding the US, dropped from 140 to 101.

China had the most billionaires after the US, with 251. Germany came third with 120 followed by India at the fourth place with 84.