The Richest Family In the World

Just Walton will be the new owner of the Denver bronc Art World witnessed history this week when the Peggy and David Rockefeller collections scored a record sum at auction, the final total eight hundred and thirty two million dollars. Charles and David Coke may not be running for president, but they are certainly poised to decide who will, and making plans to spend nearly a billion dollars on the

two thousand and sixteen election, outstripping both made. Now, those names, they're probably familiar, the Rockefellers, of course, from the old school of vastly wealthy American families. These days, though the rock Fellers don't even register among the likes of the crazy Ridge like the Walton's you heard in that clip.

Founders of course of Walmart. Members of the Walton family occupy three of the top twenty spots on Bloomberg's Billionaire Index with a combined net worth topping two hundred billion dollars. The Coke family they take up two spots in the top twenty with a hundred thirty six billion Today, though, we're talking about a family in the United Arab Emirates that's likely as rich or richer than both of them, and is possibly the wealthiest family on Earth. It's the

al Nion family. And if that name isn't ringing a bell, you probably are familiar with some of the companies the al Nions are invested in, because depending on where you live, the family might own the grocery store you shopping apartments in your neighborhood, some of your favorite brand names, or the Teenia root for New York City FC, the football club, and of course SpaceX, as well as as Rihanna's lingerie business. They've were worked on a variety of VC deals with

prominent folks in Silicon Valley as well. To learn more about this family and it's global reach, I'm joined by Bloomberg reporters Ben barton Stein, who you heard just a moment ago, and Nico Parasi. They're both in Dubai and Wealth reporter Devon Pendleton joins from New York. They in our colleague Fara elba Rawi have put together a big story about the al Nayon family. Thanks so much everyone for coming on the show. Thanks for having us. So you have uncovered the vast wealth and long reach of

this family, the young family. Devin, maybe we can just start with you. Can you tell us about the family? Who are they? Sure? Um? So? The family is the El Nayans and they are the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, which is the capital of the United Air Emirates. The family have have been in a very very prominent position for decades centuries in this region. And the U a

E is a very small country. It is made up of um seven emirates which banded together, believe, in the early nineteen seventies to officially become a country called the United airb Emirates in a sort of a union not too dissimilar to the USA. So they are separate, but

they are one country. And Abu Dhabi, of which the l Nyans are the rulers, happens to be especially powerful in this little country because they're little teeny emirate happens to sit on the vast majority of the oil reserves in the area, so they are tremendously wealthy that the actual emirate just kind of by dint of the geography

where they are. So when oil was discovered decades ago, they went from being quite powerful to extremely powerful because all of a sudden they had this these huge economic flow kind of coming into their their region that they ruled um, so that really put them on the map there power has only grown and grown and grown since since that happened. The structure of the family is sort of important, So tell us how the family is structured, who leads it, and what are the roles of different

members of the family and what do they play. Yeah, so we've really seen a new generation of leadership now since the passing of Ship Khalifa back in in May mb Z. The president Muhammad bin Zayed Um is President of the u A E. His brother Shike tof Noon is the u A National Security Advisor Shaik Monsieur. Another brother is the Deputy Prime Minister. So there in three of the highest political posts, but also controlling bast sums of private capital, which is what we delve into in

our reporting but Khalifa has as many more children. It's just the brothers who are in these really prominent positions right now, a top opera dab So they're sort of the third generation you could say, of Abidabi leadership. Do these brothers kind a big public profile or the private are they out in about? Are they sort of CNB seeing kind of people, very private, very discreet. They don't

give interviews. Um. They really appear in in the media occasionally pictures when they go abroad and meet with um the counterparts in places like Turkey or or Egypt. But yeah, rarely seen here in the in public, and they definitely do not talk or boast about their wealth. I should say that representatives of the al Nayans didn't respond to your requests seeking comment. So we have this very old,

very wealthy, prominent family. People listening to this might be thinking what I'm thinking, which is, when you just assumed that they're incredibly rich, what did you find, Devin, that was so surprising when you started really looking into their wealth. Yeah, that's that's a good question. I mean, it's kind of like a very unsurprising revelation that this family is extremely rich.

But what makes this story. Sort of exciting to us was that we were actually able to really kind of put a number on it, because if you think about these these families in the Petro States that have ruled and have sort of benefited in some ways from energy flows for decades, and it's a lot of kind of rumor and conjecture over how rich they are, and like where do you draw that line between state money and royal money? Because I think another important thing to point

out is that these families are very big. Like we're not just talking about like grandparents and their kids and their kids, Like it's not just sort of a straight multigenerational line. We're talking in some cases thousands of people, like the Saudi royal family. The numbers are nobody even knows for sure, but it could be like fifteen thousand people. The l Ninan's clan is not that big, but it's

still is quite large. And that's partly because you have multiple wives in many cases, so there were different lines of children from different wives, and those different lines of children work sometimes more important depending on how close you were genetically, like how how close in the tree to the to the trunk to the ultimate kind of patriarch of this um emirate, so the family is very big.

And then also where exactly is that sort of distinctive line between Okay, this is state money, this is the treasury, and this is for the family, this is what they can dip into to buy yachts or to buy palaces or or whatever they want, and that, like so many states, you know, in the in the early times, was very loose, like who knew really where that line was, and there's just not a lot of visibility. I mean these states too, because they were so wealthy, they weren't really going to

the bond markets. They didn't have to really have a great deal of visibility um into their finances to that degree. So we didn't really know, but we assumed. We saw royal families um buying racehorses and nice places in London

and sort of thought, gosh, they're wealthy. But what we do can see here is it because the off Ninons very kind of recently have become very active in investing, very active in business kind of on their own, like in their own personal capacity, we can really look at their businesses and value them, and it's pretty fascinating to see them kind of stepping out as individuals in this way, all right, So let's get to the question just how

rich are they? So we came up with an at least number of about three d billion if you take that as kind of the the floor of their wealth. I mean, that alone would put them on the top of our of what we track as the world's richest families, which the published list published last week, and then it came out with the waltons Um who you mentioned earlier, West is number one with two billions. This is on the Bomberg's list of the wealthiest people. Yes, Bloomberg's list.

This would put them way above that. So it's a point of comparison. I mean, I think that's another the thing that's distinctive too, as we say, oh, like these families are rich. Of course they're rich, but this is quantifying our it's our best effort to quantify just how much more rich they are. And this is the family's wealth as separate from official wealth having to do with abu da itself. Yes, to the best of our ability to tread that line to kind of discern where that

line is, which again is really hard. I mean, there is some intermingling. Probably, it's really tough to tell. On our list of riches families, the Saudi family, the Alcads are on there as well, at about a hundred and five billion dollars almost three times, yes, almost three times. But you know, anybody could say, well, Saudi Arabia, I mean that they are far bigger than Abu Dhabi in terms of oil reserves, why would they be us rich?

And that's I mean a great question. A lot of that is kind of what we're able to to value, like what we're able to assess, because Saudi Arabia is more opaque in this way. The family has not gone out, the family members, the princes and princesses haven't gone out in the same way as the al Ninon family members and invested in their own names. With a couple exceptions, they haven't done it to this scale. So it's much

harder to value, it's much harder to to tell. And there's also you know, you could also argue that you know, the country there's far bigger, there's far more people in Saudi Arabia. Um the demands on the budget are much higher, so the kind of spoils that's left over for the royal family could could arguably be smaller, And that's kind of one of the assumptions we make in our analysis. So as you said that money sort of is spread across a very large family, dozens and dozens of people

have a piece of it. It was just some big pile of money, everyone can go grab at it. Are there some who have far more than others? Probably? Yes. Like I said, there's going to be certain lines of the family that depending on kind of how they rank in the family. I mean, this is kind of an amorphous concept, but some families branches outranked others depending on

how close they are, how powerful. Um Shake taw Noon and Shake Mansour and Shaike Mohammed are all their full brothers, and their mother was very savvy politically and she made sure that her six sons were well positioned in the family. Um So, thanks to their mom's kind of smart networking basically or whatever you need to do within the family, their sons were lined up to kind of like have some of the primo positions and possibly access to great deals.

Then and you come interested in here, how do people in Abu Dhabi regard uh the A nine family and their wealth. What do they think of them? Well, like I guess as a starting point. For most people in Abu Dhabi, these are their employee years, whether they work for the state oil giant where the brothers sit at the top of the board, whether they work for one of these private investment vehicles managing the money on behalf

of the brothers. Practically everyone can trace their job there, the building in which they're living, the building in which they're working to one of the companies controlled by this family. So I think in you know, from that standpoint, as long as their their standard of living personally is good, then they would put the family in high regard, particularly in the in the boom times which Abbud Aabi is in right now, given the white oil prices are trading. Yeah.

And and to add to that, I mean the United Emirates, Um, the indigenous populations, I mean raity. These nationals are minority in their own country. So most of the workforce here is internationals, are immigrants are coming here, so they are all here as guests, here to improve their their livelihoods, to earn their livelihoods, to improve their lives. So and I think in general, the off of the ruling family

is not it's not a daily topic. Um, it's not It's not something you you second guests or or speculate about it. It's just effective of life and being here in Duine. My conversation with Devin, Nico and Ben continues after the break. So you spelled out there well, and you also talked about how difficult it is to find it. How do you go about finding their well? Like, how

did you determine how rich they are? Well? One thing that helped us a lot kind of established like a very high floor for their for their wealth is um. We spoke about how they have some unusually big publicly traded companies and shake tow noon is Um. He founded a conglomerate which is grown and grown in recent years called Royal Group, and one of Royal Group's biggest divisions

is as a company called International Holding Company. So that's a kind of an investment conglomerate within this investment conglomerate, and International Holding which is also called HC shortened version is publicly traded on the Abadabi Stock Exchange, and it has grown into just a really vast company in a very short amount of time. I was looking at the stock prices and it looks like in the past three years this price has gone up almost eight thousand percent.

Does that sound right, Ben? Yeah, I know. It's more than more than twenty percent over the past five years, which I believe is number one globally for any company with more than one billion dollars in market cap. Wait, meant this company grew twenty thousand percent in five years. You heard that? Correct? Is there any company that's grown that fast? Not not in recent times? Yeah. So it's market cap it's around it's sitting right around two. Yeah.

So that's in the same league as McDonald's, slightly more than Nike, Disney, other household names in the US. So it's marketing up of the value of all of its shares exceed the value of those companies. Correct. And so that h C is majority owned by Royal Group, which is owned by shake Ton noon Um. So that is a really interesting example of powerful Royal striking out in business and a lot of you know, and this is something you see kind of across the Gulf to a degree,

but they are a lot of the investments. I mean this this company doesn't have like one thesis like it's not there to do oil pipelines, it's not there to make vials or widgets, I mean they invest in all sorts of different areas. I mean a dozen probably close to different categories healthcare, in UM, energy, entertainment, UM. So they own publicly trade companies as well as privately have steakes in private companies as well, and not just in the Middle East, but in Europe and in the United States,

other places all over all over the world. I mean, just right now they are They've offered a stake of almost two billion dollars UM for a huge steak and a Colombian food producer, I mean one of the biggest food manufacturers in Colombia. They own a steake in Rihanna's lingerie line in fenty So hugely diversified. And part of this is strategic that this region. And it's not too different than the basic idea behind a sovereign wealth fund

is to diversify. It's a rainy day fund, and they want to diversify the wealth that it's accumulated over time from energy into non energy UM industries. It's like, you know, the thesis that any investor would try to take to kind of, you know, build a good long term portfolio for long term growth. They're just doing it in a

really aggressive timeframe. Um, this is ramped up very quickly and they have a tremendous amount of money that they can deploy and right now, I mean this is probably coming into just like a really exciting time for them because they're seeing valuations come down so much. I mean they can just go on a bargain shopping spray and have they been doing that, buying up a whole lot

of stuff. It's tough to have visibility on the non listed entities within Roller Group, for instance, but what we do know is that, to Devon's point, there's been a focus in the past on emerging markets assets in India, for instance. More recently there's been more of a focus on some of the beaten down assets in the US and Europe. Just because the valuations have become more attractive.

They're looking more to deploy billions of dollars into these markets as well, so not just em but also developed markets. And what sort of things are they purchasing in emerging markets in India and other uh sort of cheaper securities now in the US well, a lot of the investment decisions come down to close personal relationships. This is a place that a lot of dealmakers are flying into Abu Dhabi, but they find it takes some time to build the

trust of del Nayan family UM. So these investment decisions aren't usually quick decisions, but things that come from long cultivated relationships with dealmakers. For instance, Sam Zel, the prominent US real estate titan, he has a long standing relationship with Shike tot Noon. Same goes for the Colombian billionaire him Maklinski, who Devon was referring to. Same goes for got some Adani, the wealthiest man in Asia. He has a longstanding relationship with the Abu Dhabi royals as well.

So a lot of these investment decisions stem from long cultivated relationships and then capitalizing on a perceived attractive opportunity based on valuations at any any particular moment. They're also often made on the back of due political developments. So when Dui or Abu Dhabi UM restores or improves diploma relationships with UM, let's say Turkey or Israel or Egypt or what wants to UM support Egypt's economy, then these vehicles UM linked to SEA often come in and buy

some of the companies there. So you're able to track a lot of these public companies just because there are disclosures, were you able to dig into some of the more private dealings, uh and and discover wealth that wasn't known before I could I could just briefly say, I guess like one of the newer entities under shake tot Now's umbrella is this interesting artificial intelligence firm called Group forty two. Now they were close partners with the Chinese government in

manufacturing COVID vaccines. More recently they worked on driverless cars and launched a national genome sequencing project. So this is another one of these private entities in their instance, in their case private, although they have now recently list did a subsidiary. But through some of the investment partnerships they have with international firms, we've been able to arrive at

least an estimated valuation for the company. So again, as these private Abu Dhabi entities partner with international investors, that can at least give us some glimpse of how much money they truly are worth. More with our reporters when we come back, Devin, you found that the all Nayan family has a lot of real estate around the world. They do, which is which is very you know, that's kind of right out of them. The royal families playbook

Royal families everywhere, especially in the Gulf. They love real estate. They've have always a long time loved London, in particular some of the most beautiful and fancy neighborhoods in London, like Knightsbridge and Berkeley Square and Kensington. There's always like lots of properties they're owned by royal families in the Gulf who often would spend significant amounts of time there

in the summer. And uh on this show the other day, we're just talking about Russian billionaires buying super yachts, and I think the l Ninon family also has a super yaout of their realm oh yes, in fact, they have at least three. I was actually speaking to one of the biggest yacht brokers in the world the other day and he was telling me how I was asking about, you know, growth across the world and where are you seeing, you know, especially with the Russian sort of cut out

of the market largely for for their business. Where where you're seeing growth is in the UA, And he was saying, to some extent, were saturated because they've sold a yacht. Pretty much everybody who cares to have a yacht um in the country, and certainly the royal family mean having a yachts a lot of upkeep and how much time do you even spend on it, especially when you're really actively investing. So he was saying pretty much the at the markets reached peak Saturay and until they're ready to

trade up. I was just gonna say, in fact, that the dealmakers who work most closely with all Nyon brothers typically don't need to book a hotel room when they travel to Abu Dhabi, Uh. They find that there's an extra space waiting for them on one of the brother's yachts. Well, that's where visitors stay when they do business deals. They just stay in those those big ships exactly. So if I'm sitting in the U s which I am, or in London or uh Beijing, why should I care that

this family has so much money? How does that actually affect me? Ben, you had mentioned a little bit about how oil prices um can rise or fall depending on decisions made by this family. Um, can you describe a little bit more about that? In other ways in which this family's wealth has reached around the world beyond them just being a bunch of rich people, right. Well, I mean particularly at a moment like this where a lot of consumers around the world are worried about prices at

the pump. Uh, you know, just making ends meet. The decisions that this family makes, both in terms of energy policy, but also the investment decisions they make, which can significantly swing assets that a lot of people you know might hold in their pension funds uh or just you know, their personal investments. These brothers can really move markets in significant ways, and not just again energy prices, but stock prices, et cetera. Where they where they put their money has

a dramatic impact. Shakemans are also but a very important French sise uh. In the UK. Can you talk about that a little bit. Yeah. So in two thousand and eight, Um Monsieurs it was a vehicle owned by Monsur but the UK UM Premier League club Manchester City, which was at the time really underperforming team. It was it was always eclipsed by it's much more famous neighbor Manchester United. UM. But since they bought it in two thousand and eight,

the club has gone from from success to success. They they want six Premier League tiles since then UM, compared to two in in the more than hundred years before um And and they've grown this this investment into kind of sports imperium m a global sports empire consisting of other clubs. So they now own clubs in in France, in in Australia, in the US as well, and they've gradually increased revenue, so it's it's been a fincial success.

They sold ten percent in it to US private equity fund called silver Lake UM so both on on the business side but also on on the sports side, many many considered great success. It's kind of enabled them to project a far more benign image on the world stage. UM you know, linked to football, um and and is being viewed by by everyone globally as one of the most watched sports. So we have sports teams around Europe,

in the U S whever. Some of the companies say are involved in that people would be familiar with and maybe not even know that the family has a stake in it. Well, Nico had just hinted at um at New York City FC, the football club soccer for US listeners, UM Club and of course SpaceX as well as as Brianna's lingerie business. UM They've partnered on a variety of venture capital deals with a longstanding partner of Jared Kushner's. They've were worked on a variety of VC deals with

prominent folks in Silicon Valley as well. When you look at the future of this family, where do you see where do they go from here? Well, I think this like this this moment where valuations are coming down, like I was saying, they have a real opportunity where stocks are just cheaper because the markets are so valiable, stocks are cheaper. There's a lot of people looking for for cash right now, um to help them out through surging inflation,

difficult times. And they've got it, and they've got it, and I think that they have a huge opportunity to increase their footprint here. What's interesting about the Anon family investments is the role that they can play with some struggling states in the Middle East. I guess that we think historically about the role that I m F might play as a lender of last resort or in other instances China, how China could be the lender of last resort.

But at a time right now of high oil prices, it's actually some of the Gulf states that are playing this role helping prop up countries such as an Egypt, for instance, that might be struggling due to its reliance on imports. So again back to sort of the daily livelihoods of people in countries, especially in the Middle East, their investment decisions can really have a significant impact. Dead and Pendleton, Nico Policy and Ben barton Stein. Thanks so

much for taking the time to talk to me. Thanks, it's fun. Thanks so much, Thank you. Cheers. You can find this story on the All Nayan Family at Bloomberg dot com. Thanks for listening to us here at The Big to daily podcast from Bloomberg and I Heart Radio. For more shows from my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Read today's story and subscribe to our daily newsletter at Bloomberg dot com. Slash Big Take, and we'd love to hear

from you. Email us with questions or comments to Big Take at Bloomberg dot net. The supervising producer of The Big Take is Vicky Burgalina. Our senior producer is Katherine Fink. Our producers are Moe Barrow and Michael Falero, with additional production support from Rebecca Chasson and Sam Gabauer. Raphael M. Seeley is our engineer. Original music by Leo Sidrin. I'm West Kasova. We'll be back tomorrow with another big take.