Emirati businessman Mohamed Alabbar, founder and managing director of Emaar Properties, was ranked 20th on Forbes Middle East World’s Richest Arabs 2025 list, and second on Forbes Middle East Most Impactful Real Estate Leaders 2025 list.
First appearance on Forbes list
Alabbar was featured on Forbes World's Billionaires list for the first time this year with a net worth estimated at USD2.3 billion as of March 7, 2025. His diverse portfolio spans sectors, including real estate, technology, e-commerce, food and beverages.
A vast real estate portfolio
Alabbar is one of the region's most prominent real estate development leaders, with over three decades of experience since founding Emaar Properties in 1997. The company has a diverse real estate portfolio, including real estate assets for sale in the UAE and international real estate operations, as well as shopping malls, retail, commercial leasing, hospitality and entertainment.
Emaar is one of the largest real estate companies in the region, owning 1.7 billion square feet of land. It has projects that target different markets including the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia, and North America.
It also developed Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, Atlantis Dubai and the Dubai Mall, which announced a massive expansion project in June last year with an investment of approximately $408.4 million.
The company was listed on the Dubai Financial Market in 2000.
Alabbar stepped down as Emaar Properties chairman in 2020 to devote his time to executive management and day-to-day company activities and took on the role of managing director. Since 2002, Emaar has delivered more than 120,000 residential units worldwide. It owns and operates 40 hotels with approximately 9,800 rooms, as of March 2025.
In 2024, the company recorded its highest-ever revenues of $9.7 billion and achieved its highest-ever real estate sales of $19 billion, a 72 percent increase compared to 2023. Its assets reached $43.6 billion. The company also acquired 141 million square feet of development land last year, with a total development value of $26 billion.
Global expansion: Eagle Hills
Alabbar founded Eagle Hills, an Abu Dhabi-based real estate development company, in 2014. The company has developed projects in 10 countries across three continents.
Eagle Hills' portfolio has been executing projects in the Gulf region, Europe, and Africa. The company has expanded its presence in Europe through major development projects, most notably the comprehensive expansion of the Belgrade Waterfront project in Serbia, which was announced last January. The total value of Belgrade Waterfront will exceed $12.5 billion upon completion of all phases. In January, the company also signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Georgia to invest $6 billion in development projects.
Americana restaurants
Alabbar's wealth comes from his 33 percent stake in Americana Restaurants, the largest operator of fast food restaurant chains in the Middle East. It is listed on the Saudi and Abu Dhabi stock exchanges.
Americana Restaurants was founded in Kuwait in 1964. In 2016, Adeptio AD Investments Limited, a joint venture between Alabbar and the Saudi Public Investment Fund, acquired a majority stake in the company. Today, Adeptio AD Investments Limited owns 66.03 percent of Americana Restaurants.
Alabbar is chairman of the board of directors of the company, which operates global chains such as KFC and Pizza Hut in 12 countries across the Middle East, North Africa, and Kazakhstan, with 2,630 restaurants as of March 2025.
In the first quarter of 2025, the company recorded 16.2 percent growth in annual revenues, reaching $573.4 million, after a 9 percent decline in revenue last year, due to regional geopolitical tensions, weak consumer demand in some markets, and fluctuating foreign exchange rates.
Technology and digital banking
In 2017, Alabbar launched the online shopping platform Noon, headquartered in Riyadh, in partnership with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which owns a 50 percent stake, with an initial investment value of $1 billion. The main goal of this partnership was to support the region's digital economy and empower local businesses, according to Wamda, an entrepreneurship empowering platform for entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa.
In 2023, Noon completed a $335 million deal to acquire the fashion platform Namshi, previously owned by Emaar Properties, which completed the acquisition between 2017 and 2019. Founded in 2011, the fashion platform serves markets in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, and Qatar.
Alabbar has also expanded his technology endeavours, being a major investor in the Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP) fund, which targets the technology sector in the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey.
In 2021, Alabbar announced the launch of Zand Digital Bank, which received its UAE Central Bank licence in 2022 and became the first approved UAE digital bank to offer digital asset custody services in December 2024.