Category: Billionaires

It would be impossible to accuse Clive Palmer of failing to dream big. He’s the Australian tycoon who’s behind a project that would see a replica of the Titanic built and put into service on the ocean.

The project was first announced in 2012. Recently, Clive Palmer disclosed that his Titanic project’s European headquarters would be located in Paris, so it would be relatively unaffected by Brexit.

No doubt a smart move, but the build-out of Titanic II has bigger problems than Brexit.

To begin with, Titanic 2 was supposed to be sailing by 2016. Clearly, that never happened. The project like the one before it has been fraught with problems. As it stands today, the Paris office that was just announced is one of the few things that Titanic II has going for it.

Despite the fact there’s no real construction happening at the moment, Clive Palmer said this about his project:

“You’ll see a lot of guys my age buying, building, and sailing boats… I’m building a bigger boat because I’ve got a bigger budget.”

Clive Palmer and His Big Boat

When the Titanic 2 was first announced, it had the support of Deltamarin and CSC Jinling Shipyard. Deltamarin is a legitimate ship-design company, and CSC Jinling Shipyard is a real shipbuilder in China. The two companies even signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and planned to “conduct preliminary technical studies.”

That was all way back in 2012. As time went by, things for the Titanic II project began to sink. In 2015, workers at CSC Jinling told Clive Palmer that nothing was happening, which is where the project is still today.

In the meantime, Clive Palmer decided to create his own Australian political party, called the Unified Australia Party (UAP). In truth, the UAP moniker had been used prior to 1945, before it was absorbed by the Labor Party.

Someone decided they didn’t like Mr. Palmer’s designs on a half-century-old political party’s abandoned name, and eventually, Clive Palmer settled on the name “Palmer United Party,” for his new life in Australian politics.

Making Australia Great

As the plans for his Titanic remake were further slumping into the ocean, Palmer was successfully elected to the Federal Parliament in Australia. Somewhat surprisingly, his new party was also able to attract other politicians, and three candidates from the Palmer United Party were elected to the Australian Parliament.

Clive Palmer made a big splash when he entered politics, but it all seemed to stop there. He was absent more than any other MP in the 44th Parliament, and according to media reports, he rarely left his Gold Coast mansion.

He may have been working on the Titanic II while away from the legislature, though there were no results to show for his efforts.

After he was soundly defeated in the next election, perhaps due to some unrealized repression relating to the Titanic II, Palmer announced that he would retire from politics.

That didn’t last long, though, and this year the former MP told Australia that he planned to re-enter the federal political game so that his party can “Make Australia Great.”

Clive Palmer Is into Dinosaurs Too

The Titanic 2 isn’t the only albatross hanging around Clive Palmer’s neck. He also attempted to create the world’s largest animatronic dinosaur park. This may have been another distraction that kept the mogul from his duties as an Australian MP.

Much like the Titanic II, his giant dino park is currently reported to be abandoned, though he claims that he uses it like President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

There is little evidence to corroborate his claims, and he may very well be riding around in his abandoned dinosaur park in a golf cart with the soundtrack to “Jurassic Park” playing on his smartphone.

While the actual construction on the Titanic II has yet to commence, Clive Palmer is said to be in possession of 3,000 sets of Titanic-themed flatware and cutlery.

The exact location of these eating utensils is another mystery, but he may be stashing them in the hollow body of a lifeless brontosaurus, as he waits for his fortunes to turn for the better once again.

Featured image from The Australian.

Many of his contemporaries would prefer to see him as a connoisseur in what happened to be his first source of passion. Right from his days at Tennessee Technical University, Jon Yarbrough combined his nous and entrepreneurial finesse into a trade.

Foosball to him was more than a leisure. He had a conceptual picture beyond the immediate gratification of owning a foosball table as a prized asset. As a student, he was reputed as an aficionado of foosball, and his clout soon earned him a deal with a local arcade in Cookeville.

He’d rent out his foosball table to the bar in agreement for a 50-50 profit ratio. Having latched onto the marketability of the niche, he soon purchased more foosball tables and pinball machines and rented to other arcades as well.

In 1991, he founded Video Gaming Technologies and created video games to suit the demand of tribal casinos. The proliferation of these casinos led to the boom of his company, and this was where he earned most of his fortune.

After successfully carving a niche for himself, he sold the business for $1.28 billion to Australian firm Aristocrat Leisure in October 2014 and delved into real estate, tech stocks, and other investments.

Jon Yarbrough Invests in Technology Companies

Jon Yarbrough sees tech stocks as the wisest investments anyone could delve into. His first stint was in 1987 when he invested $30,000 in Microsoft. He now has a net worth of $2.2 billion.

While sharing his views in an interview with Forbes, Yarbrough remarked on the phenomenal growth of his investments in Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple. The investments grew astronomically to $7 million during the dot-com bubble before losing about 80% of the fortune in the dot-com bust.

For Yarbrough, making investment decisions is more of a hobby than anything else. While many others take the Wall Street Journal as a business guide, Yarbrough reads it for the fun of it. He was, however, fortunate to have had his dad, a stock investor, hold his hands when he made his foray into tech stocks in 1986.

He got the basics on phantom stock investments in high school from him, and as they say, the rest is history.

At 61, Yarbrough is still willing to take risks and break new grounds in stock investments. He has been a staunch disciple of tech stocks as they make up 25% of his portfolio but remains open to investments in hedge funds, private equity, and lending funding.

Choosing tech stocks is easy for Yarbrough. The primary parameter he uses in choosing an investment is the company’s earnings to growth ratio. When a stock tends to grow fast with huge profit returns, he’s always willing to have a stake in them. 

Suffice it to say, he is not driven by the desire to acquire and sell them so quickly. He has been able to retain some of the stocks he acquired for three decades. He believes in long-term investments.

As for those willing to get started in investing, he proposes investments in the broad market exchange-traded fund but urges them to do it slowly over time.

“It can be discouraging if you put it all to work at once just before a market turndown.”

Indeed, with tech stocks taking a battering right now, one can only imagine how much of a dent it’s putting Jon Yarbrough’s wealth.

Featured image from Pilotonline.

Life is like a vacuum cleaner. Sometimes it sucks then it all turns to dust. Dyson electronics pioneer and vacuum cleaner aficionado, James Dyson, is setting up shop in Singapore to work on his new electronic car-making business–and is receiving some criticism in the process.

The serial entrepreneur and electronic appliance specialist publically backed the British Brexit vote but is now moving some of his operations to Asia instead of supporting British manufacturing.

Although the renowned inventor is taking some flack at the minute, his move from vacuum cleaners to electric cars is raising some proverbial eyebrows as well.

Changing Times for James Dyson

As any entrepreneur will tell you, sometimes you have to do something completely different and move with the times to be successful. And James Dyson knows all about success.

He is stated as having a net worth of $5.3 billion by Forbes and is currently #321 on their rich list.

Dyson vacuum cleaners became a massive hit across the globe in the 1990s and changed the way we cleaned our mite-infested carpets without using a hoover bag.

Housewives and husbands across the planet rejoiced as the increase in suction allowed them to understand and appreciate the true meaning of a clean carpet.

Yet Dyson made the announcement last year that he would be moving into the design and construction of electric cars. And also moving his operations to Singapore.

Increasing Popularity of Electric Cars

As the increasing popularity of electric cars rises year upon year as governments across the world scramble to phase out fossil fuel pollution, Dyson is now striving to become a player in an already competitive market. Just think Tesla Motors!

However, to become competitive amidst the current electric car market conditions, Dyson is setting up a plant in Singapore. Dyson’s chief executive Jim Rowan released a statement in regards to the Singapore move saying:

“The decision of where to make our car is complex, based on supply chains, access to markets and the availability of the expertise that will help us achieve our ambitions. Our existing footprint and team in Singapore, combined with the nation’s significant advanced manufacturing expertise, made it a frontrunner. Singapore also offers access to high-growth markets as well as an extensive supply chain and a highly-skilled workforce.”

Although James Dyson is currently receiving massive amounts of criticism back in the UK for backing the Brexit vote to leave the European Union and then opening the new plant in Singapore, he already has factories in Malaysia.

Dyson currently employs 12,000 people across the planet with 4,800 of them in Britain. James Dyson’s critics will simply have to suck it up and ask themselves how many people they employ in the UK.

Featured image by Royal Society uploader.

George Soros is on a growing list of important people who have apparently been victims of a mail bombing campaign. There isn’t much information about who could be behind a plot that has targeted numerous politicians, including the Clintons, Barack Obama, and former CIA Director John Brennan at CNN.

It’s impossible to know the purpose of this series of reprehensible acts, but the targets all seem to be opponents of the Trump administration. At first glance, this suggests a political motivation. Yet another deranged Republican extremist at large.

All the bombs that have been found so far have been homemade explosive devices, commonly called pipe bombs. While a simple device, a pipe bomb is potentially deadly.

George Soros’ Politics Are Certainly in Play

Alexander Soros, who is George Soros’ son, was quick to frame the wide-reaching bomb plot in highly political terms.

In an op-ed that was published in the New York Times, the younger Soros said that:

“With Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, things got worse. White supremacists and antisemites like David Duke endorsed his campaign. Mr. Trump’s final TV ad famously featured my father; Janet Yellen, chairwoman of the Federal Reserve; and Lloyd Blankfein, chairman of Goldman Sachs – all of them Jewish – amid dog-whistle language about ‘special interests’ and ‘global special interests’.”

What isn’t being covered as much in the US media is the fact that most of the people that were targeted have been part of numerous political actions across the planet over the last few decades.

George Soros’ employees have openly admitted to intervening in global politics as early as 1991 when they helped overthrow Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia.

Velimir Curgus, who worked for the Soros network in Belgrade, said that:

“We were here to support the civil sector–the people who were fighting against the regime of Slobodan Milosevic the past 10 years… Most of our work was undercover.”

A Rich Man’s Game

Soros’ enormous fortune, currently estimated to be in excess of $8 billion USD, allowed him to build an extensive network of NGO’s across the planet. The activities that these groups have undertaken aren’t publicly disclosed, but George Soros has talked about his involvement in working to supplant existing governments in formerly communist states.

In a 2001 article George Soros explained:

“When I got involved there was a pressing issue, which was the collapse of the Soviet empire and the transition from a closed to an open society… It was a historical opportunity, and I rushed in.”

Another Historic Opportunity Closer to Home

It’s no secret that George Soros is close to the Democratic party in the USA, and was openly opposed to Donald Trump’s election in 2016. Curiously, the public’s reactions to some of President Trump’s actions in early 2017 were exaggerated when compared to similar policies that were enacted by former President Obama.

President Trump’s travel ban that limited access to the US for citizens from seven countries was met with actual riots. Most people don’t know those seven countries were initially selected by former President Obama, and used for enhanced visa security policy during his administration.

Former President Obama also created a presidential hit list, which extended to US citizens.

The reaction from the public and the media was extremely limited in both cases, especially when compared to the ‘instant riots’ that President Trump’s 90-day travel ban seemed to cause.

There’s no direct evidence to link George Soros to politically-motivated riots in the USA, although his organizations have worked extensively along similar lines in other nations.

For what it’s worth, President Trump has come out on the side of a civil political process and decried the pipe bombs that were sent to some of his fiercest critics as:

“abhorrent, despicable.”

Whether or not these acts have anything to do with the upcoming mid-term elections in the US or a much deeper motive is anyone’s guess at this point.

Featured image by Wikipedia.

It isn’t easy to make money. When it comes to seeing your name wiped off the list of global billionaires, it has to sting. For Mike Novogratz, the rise to billionaire status has happened more than once. Unfortunately for him, it also seems to disappear just as quickly.

Earlier this year Forbes estimated that Mike Novogratz’s crypto net worth was in excess of $700 million USD. That figure was created when cryptos were flying high. Today Mr. Novogratz is probably worth a lot less, but it hasn’t seemed to dent his enthusiasm for the crypto space.

The crypto billions that recently disappeared are the second time that excessive optimism cost Mike Novogratz billionaire status. The first came in 2008 after Fortress Investment Group’s shares value plummeted to around $2 USD per share. They had traded as high as $35 USD in 2007 when the company had gone public and sold off a single digit percentage of their company to equity investors.

Mike Novogratz Knows How to Bounce Back

When the Lehman Brothers-fueled collapse came, Mike Novogratz saw his first fortune get obliterated. In late December of 2008, Fortress Investment Group had to suspend withdrawals from their Drawbridge Global Macro fund, which was hemorrhaging money.

Mike Novogratz was influential in founding and managing the Drawbridge Global Macro fund, and was at its helm when it suspended withdrawals at the nadir of the last crisis. He had been with Goldman Sachs since 1992, and his experience in emerging markets like Latin America and Asia helped him find a place at Fortress Investment Group.

The overall value of Fortress Investment Group was artificially low during the crisis. The underlying investments that Fortress had made were basically sound, and the falling share prices exaggerated the real market conditions in the extreme. After the orgy of selling passed, Fortress’s portfolio value improved substantially.

Leaving Fortress and Going Crypto

Despite the relative improvement in the Fortresses Macro fund, the company decided to shut it down in 2015. Mike Novogratz walked away from Fortress with a pay package that was worth more than $200 million dollars. Not enough to get him back on the billionaire’s list, but not too shabby either.

In 2013, two years before he left Fortress, Mike Novogratz decided to get into cryptos. Back then there weren’t many options, and Mr. Novogratz ended up buying some bitcoin when it was still selling for well under $1,000 USD (contrary to popular belief, 2013 was another breakout year for bitcoin, with prices ranging from $100 at its lowest to $1,00 at its highest).

He famously told Bloomberg in 2013:

“Put a little money in bitcoin…Come back in a few years and it’s going to be worth a lot.”

Mike Novogratz expanded on his confidence in the sector to Bloomberg TV in 2014:

“So there’s this open source community where there’s huge brain power, let alone all the VC money that’s going in. And so from Marc Andreessen and his company to Benchmark… there’s lots of smart money going in. I’ve never seen a small project with more human capital going into it, and so I kind of want to bet just on that alone.”

He was talking about the Bitcoin development space, where there were more than 30,000 programmers working on the platform according to his estimates. It isn’t hard to see that he was 100% right on the money, and got into cryptos at the perfect time.

Not a Popular Move

However, there has been a lot of criticism hurled at the crypto space. From their beginnings, cryptos haven’t been well received by many people in the investment community. Mike Novogratz was clearly cutting against the grain when he was publicly bullish on an asset class that is controversial even today.

“Tyler Durden” of Zerohedge fame, decided to make the following comment on Mike Novogratz’s crypto position back in 2013, saying:

“Given that Bitcoin may ultimately make firms like Fortress – that rely on fiat specie – redundant, then doesn’t the endorsement of Bitcoin by one of the world’s largest Private Equity firms reek of the ultimate failure of BTC as a monetary construct, and seem much more to be merely an attempt by the firm to herd even more momentum chasers into a trade [ostensibly one for Novogratz P.A.] that will be then unwound with Bitcoins ultimately converted into the same dollar they are supposed to replace?”

Looking back, it’s ironic to see such skepticism surrounding Bitcoin, and clearly, Mike Novogratz was getting in at a great time. Like many doubters, Tyler Durden places cryptos at odds with the established financial system. Mike Novogratz was looking at cryptos as a technology, and his view of cryptos was clearly a profitable one.

The “Goldman Sachs” of Cryptos

While Mr. Novogratz’s calls on the crypto market haven’t always been correct, he has been on the right side of the market enough to build up an extremely valuable position. He recently launched a crypto merchant bank that he hopes will grow into “The Goldman Sachs of Cryptos.” Called Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY.CVE), the company went public in Canada via a reverse merger earlier this year.

A number of prominent crypto-focused companies have used this method to list their equity on a public exchange. Instead of using an Initial Public Offering (IPO), a company buys all the outstanding shares of an existing company and uses it as a vehicle to list their assets on a public stock exchange.

It’s much easier to use a Canadian reverse merger than a US IPO. Other notable companies that used this method are HIVE Blockchain Technology and Hut 8 Mining.

Unlike Hut 8 and Hive, Galaxy Digital isn’t focused on crypto mining. Mike Novogratz is using the company to invest in crypto companies that he sees as promising investments. Initially, the shares of GXLY saw some major selling, and the company posted some ugly quarterly results. Their holdings were hit hard by the drop in crypto prices, and that seems to have translated into selling pressure for their shares.

A New Market is Growing for Mike Novogratz

Crypto prices are still under pressure, but it seems like investors are waking up to the idea that Galaxy Digital is about more than holding on to cryptocurrencies. Galaxy Digital recently joined Goldman Sachs in investing at least $15 million USD in BitGo Holdings Inc, which is working on creating a $1 trillion USD crypto wallet.

Mike Novogratz commented on the investment after the details were made public:

“We have been impressed with BitGo’s world-class team, their deep technical understanding of digital assets as well as their ability to deliver institutional-quality products to investors. Our team is excited to support BitGo as it enters into this next phase of growth.”

Once again, it seems like Mike Novogratz is focusing on technology over crypto assets as such, which may be a good strategy in a sector that is attracting loads of capital. He also called a bottom in crypto prices last month, saying that:

“This is the BGCI (Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index) chart… I think we put in a low yesterday, retouched the highs of late last year and the point of acceleration that led to the massive rally/bubble… markets like to retrace to the breakout… we retraced the whole of the bubble.”

Still a Wild Market

Bitcoin prices have been more or less flat since Mr. Novogratz called the bottom of an epic plunge in crypto prices. The jury is still very much out when it comes to the future of these assets. He also weighed in on the Tether controversy and encouraged the people behind the controversial stablecoin to increase the amount of transparency in their operations.

Despite the fact that crypto exchange Bitfinex may be insolvent (they are a sister company of Tether), Mike Novogratz used cautious words when he clarified his position toward one of the world’s largest stablecoins:

“I’d like to put context to these quotes as the last thing I want to do is spread FUD. I said I thought tether has a dollar for every tether and that we actively traded it. The fact that almost $700mm has been redeemed in an orderly fashion is important.”

Decades in the financial markets have given Mike Novogratz a perspective that few in the crypto world have. There’s nothing like experience to guide decision making, and that bodes well for Mike Novogratz’s ventures in the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain as the market evolves.

Featured image from Everipedia.org.

In the first half of the year, French billionaires surpassed everyone else, partly thanks to extremely strong demand from China. However, one Frenchman has lost a lot of his wealth due to fall in the stock market.

France is not necessarily a figurehead of capitalism, in fact, it’s a country with a strong socialist tradition. And this is exactly where the fastest asset growth ever took place, at least considering the 13 richest people in the country. These have, according to Bloomberg data, increased their assets to $27.6 billion in the first five months of the year. That’s 12% more than in the same period of the previous year.

Americans, Japanese, and Chinese could not keep up, even though they got richer as well.

The largest contributor to France’s wealth was Bernard Arnault, the world’s fourth richest man, whose fortunes increased by $14.9 billion to a sum of $78.2 billion, since the beginning of this year. His 81-year-old fellow citizen Francois Pinault is not staying behind and has expanded his holdings from $10.1 billion to the sum of $36.4 billion.

Both men are active in the luxury sector. Arnault owns the LVMH group, which includes brands such as Louis Vuitton, Moet, Hennessy, Dior, Givenchy, Kenzo, Bulgari, and Hublot. Pinault is the head of the Kering Group with the brands Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Brioni, and Puma.

Strong Demand from China

The fact that both were so successful with their companies is mainly due to the extremely strong demand for the corresponding goods from Chinese consumers. They also benefited from the rapid development of e-commerce. Pinault owns the auction house Christie’s in London, which has also a very successful unit in Hong Kong.

At least $2.8 billion richer this year are Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, who call Chanel their own. Bettencourt Meyers, the richest Frenchwomen with $48.1 billion, has also grown her fortune by $3.67 billion this year. The 64-year-old holds 33% of L’Oréal.

The French have certainly made money even outside of the luxury industry. Especially Serge Dassault, the 93-year-old chief of the military aircraft manufacturer Dassault. His fortune grew from $4.89 billion to the sum of $27 billion in the first five months of the year.

However, not everyone won. A famous individual Xavier Niel lost $2.6 billion due to the fall in the stock market of the holding of Iliad, which owns telecom operator Free. The 50-year-old telecommunications shark has amassed his fortune through the adult content industry. Today he is co-owner of French newspaper Le Monde. He also holds the rights of the song “My Way” by Frank Sinatra.

Featured image by Jérémy Barande, Wikimedia.

Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, popularly referred to as the Rainbow Sheikh, is the son of the late Emir of Abu Dhabi, the founder and first president of the United Arab Emirate (UAE). The Emirati businessman and Abu Dhabi billionaire is a descent of the Al Nahyan clan, one of the ruling families of the United Arab Emirates.

His nobility is a heritage which is shared by other members of the ruling clan. Hamad bagged his first degree in economics at the Emirates University before proceeding to obtain a masters degree at the University of Wales.

Rainbow Cars

His stupendous luxury includes a vast collection of some of the rarest automobiles. Profound among them are the seven Mercedes S-Classes which come in a variety of colors. He acquired these German machines in 1983 and sought the expertise of the “Styling Garage” firm to paint the cars one rainbow color each day of the week.

The German firm painted each car in the colors of the rainbow. Designed with matching leather interiors, the vehicles include gun racks inside the boot lit which accommodate three M16 rifles that match the color of the cars.

This was where the parallel between the seven colors of his cars and the rainbow was drawn, hence; the nickname Rainbow Sheikh. Though his clout as an Abu Dhabi billionaire reverberates with so much ado in the United Arab Emirate’s capital, Hamad has a fervor for extravagance everywhere he goes.

Museum of Cars

Unlike Jay Leno who grew up acquainting himself with broken tractors and lawnmowers, Hamad has been preoccupied with the acquisition of rare and puzzling vehicles. A look into Hamad’s world of appurtenances will reveal the possession of a number of vintage Mini Coopers which seem to be a replica of an 1885 Benz Patent Motorwagen–widely regarded as the first ever car–and the only SUV ever manufactured by Lamborghini.

His impressive array which some might deem eccentric includes vehicles ranging from the mundane to the insane. With an overwhelming status as a noble in the oil-rich nation, it would be somewhat pedestrian for someone of his influence to keep such cars in a garage.

Thus, Hamad specially built a pyramid to serve as a gallery for his antiquated collection. Commissioned as the Rainbow Sheikh’s Emirates National Auto Museum, Abu Dhabi, he combines the modern and the conservative taste to carve a niche which the likes of Jay Leno and Ralph Lauren would drool at.

World’s Largest Jeep

Hamad has a megalomaniac preference for dimensions that seem to defy the extreme definition for oddity. He built the world’s largest jeep; a prototype of the Dodge Power Wagon which is 64 times larger than the original.

The truck which is today the largest in existence has an apartment within. The Emirates National Auto Museum in Abu Dhabi is the only preserve where the rarity of a hybrid dwells.

He has a soft touch for Mercedes and feels well at home with other fans of the brand online. His museum also houses the largest motorized model of a Willys World War II jeep. The jeep gained global acclaim in 2012 when it was placed in the Guinness Book of World Records and the Abu Dhabi billionaire exploited the avenue to espouse the technological wherewithal of the UAE.

Social Media

The Sheikh never shies away from using his Instagram account as a platform to express his unbridled enthusiasm for ‘aesthetics around the wheels.’ His posts are almost entirely devoted to vehicles and anything related to transportation.

Followers will surely revel in the seemingly endless display of automobile luxury which includes the rarest and the most outlandish available. It features antiquities such as a massive white Ford truck in dunes and a 1959 Pontiac Bonneville. Other marvels include some of the cutest boats that you can imagine on waters.

But some may think Hamad only comes to the spotlight because of his penchant for amassing a reservoir of automobiles. Beyond the attention stirred by his hobbies, his fortune according to the Daily Mail is almost as immense as that of the Saudi’s king. Hamad is one of the world’s nouveau riche with a net worth estimated at $20 billion and an abode that could be described as a castle.

He is twice as wealthy as mining magnate Gina Rinehart and even wealthier than the combined gross domestic product of several countries in Africa and Asia. Amassing about 400 different types of automobile barely drills a hole in Hamad’s pocket.

Abu Dhabi—the region where Hamad’s fortune sprouts from—has an immense oil deposit that constitutes 95% of the oil reserves in the United Arab Emirates. His family, regarded as one of the ruling elites in the UAE, controls Abu Dhabi’s oil deposits.

Branded Island

Hamad’s oddball adventures are not only restricted to road and track. He garnered global attention in 2011 when he reportedly recruited workers to carve his first name along a winding network of canals in a mostly-uninhabited island near Abu Dhabi. Named Al Futaisi, this private Island belonging to Hamad witnessed a dredging project creating series of canals snaking through the desert.

The ambitious engravement formed waterways in the sand. The fortune spent on such audacious project which spanned about a mile wide and a third of a mile across, left many lost for words when the Atlantic confirmed that the large letters of his names were visible even from space.

Although the images were wiped away probably for something grander and more in sync with the emirate’s development plan for 2030, his eccentric investment drew much publicity to the touch of wealth residing in the oil-rich region.

The Abu Dhabi billionaire flings his fortunes across America, Europe, and Australia as well. In 2017, the Sheikh spurned exploration attempts of an oil and gas company on his pastoral property in Australia.

While Hamad does not like to appeal to the world as a politician, he holds critical positions in the top echelons of administration in his native land where he serves as the chairman of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince’s Court and a member of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi.

Featured image from commons.wikimedia.org.

Being a billionaire will help if you plan to operate a private plane as it certainly doesn’t come cheap. A list showing some of the most famous private plane owners does indeed include a high proportion of billionaires.

In the list are President Donald Trump, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, and actor Jackie Chan. Other famous owners include Bill Gates, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, Roman Abramovich, the Sultan of Brunei, and Tiger Woods.

Of the 15 high profile owners, there are nine billionaires and six with a net worth in the range $150 to $740 million. Saudi royal Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal heads up the list as the owner of the most expensive plane, which is valued at $500 million. But actor Jackie Chan picked up his private “wings” for just $20 to $30 million.

Do You Want Your Own Private Plane?

Musician Jimmy Buffett owns an ex-military Grumman HU-16 Albatross. The flying boat was purchased for an undisclosed sum. When you compare Buffett’s Albatross to the Bombardier BD-700 ($45 million) of Bill Gates, it’s clear the owners have different priorities when choosing a private plane.

Net worth probably comes into play with Buffett at $550 million (well short of Gates at $90 billion). But it will also depend on other factors like whether the owner intends to fly the plane themselves, how far they expect to travel, and how often and how big their entourage is going to be.

Running costs can be astronomical for older, less fuel-efficient planes, but they can be picked up for not much more than a Ford Mustang. A Piper J-3 Cub, from 1946, is available for less than $30,000.

With an entourage the size of Beyoncé, the Piper is not going to work, but if you’re a bit of a Howard Hughes, it might be the one for you. For most celebrities, the budget is upwards of $20 million with running costs on top.

Tom Cruise and John Travolta are stars with a pilot’s license, and other famous pilots include Angelina Jolie, Harrison Ford, and Gisele Bündchen.

Start Your Own Airline

Some famous people are happy to use scheduled flights for their business trips and meetings. Conversely, other entrepreneurs have taken it to the extreme by setting up their own airline. Sir. Richard Branson set up his airline as he wasn’t impressed by the service offered by other ones. He is on record as saying:

“I started our airline, Virgin Atlantic, as a response to the poor service that I was subjected to on other airlines.”

He does, however, own a private plane which he justifies as it provides flexibility and saves him time. Over the years many other entrepreneurs have tried and failed, to run successful airlines. To emphasize just how difficult it is Boeing’s own website includes this stark warning:

“Starting an airline is tough. Running a profitable airline is even tougher. From startup airlines to established industry leaders, the process involves constant learning and adaptation.

Few businesses have as many variables and challenges as airlines. They are capital-intensive. Competition is fierce. Airlines are fossil fuel dependent and often at the mercy of fuel price volatility. Operations are labor intensive and subject to government control and political influence. And a lot depends on the weather.”

Airline Failures

In fairness, Boeing’s website does provide a very informative guide for anyone wanting to take the risk. This includes leasing planes rather than outright purchase and considering second-hand rather than new.

Despite the comprehensive guide from one of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers, many airlines fail. Wikipedia has a huge dossier on defunct airlines of the United States. Almost 550 US airlines have fallen by the wayside according to the list.  Wikipedia does point out:

“some of these airlines have changed identities and/or FAA certificates and are still operating under a different name”

Budget airlines in Europe, like Ryanair and EasyJet, are significantly cheaper to operate than their US counterparts. International Airport Review quotes US budget airlines as being about 10 to 20% more expensive. They suggest European airlines are cheaper for the following reasons:

• Essential services only – Ryanair doesn’t offer an in-flight TV service
• Bought wisely – modern fleets bought following 9/11
• Streamlined services – one genre of aircraft per business
• In-flight savings – fixed seats are cheaper to buy and maintain
• Staff savings – employees are often just starting in the industry
• Buying power – charge for everything onboard, even lottery tickets
• Cheaper airports – use provincial airports
• Aircraft usage – very quick turn rounds and busy schedules

Even in Europe running an airline is a high-risk venture. Another company was added to the list this week with the BBC reporting that Cobalt has ceased trading. Barely two years since Cobalt began operations from their base in Cyprus, they halted all flights without notice.

Taking a Punt on Airline Stocks

Rather than buying your own private plane or adopting the high-risk strategy of setting up an airline it might be worth taking a punt on airline stocks. We’ve just started the US airline interim reporting season with United Airlines (UCL) first out of the blocks.

Third quarter figures were released this week with some analysts upgrading them from hold to buy. UCL price is up from just below $60 a year ago to around $88 today.

American Airlines (AAL) has not fared quite so well with the price down from $52 to $32. Analysts are eagerly awaiting the earnings figures for American Airlines which are due out October 25. Expectations are high that they will follow the trend set by United, making AAL a strong buy.

And if a private plane is not on your bucket list then maybe you have your eye set on a superyacht instead.

Featured image from Shutterstock.