‘Billionaire Gasim Ibrahim’? I’ve come across this at least a dozen times over the last few years. Miadhu Daily is particularly fond of referring to Mr. Qasim Ibrahim as a billionaire. I’m not too sure if this is a satire on Mr. Qasim or someone is aiming for a bargain at inflating his ego. The words ‘millionaire’ and ‘billionaire’ have become a ubiquitous term in our Maldivian psyche and vocabulary in the recent past. I’ve seen a rise in this phenomenon particularly in the aftermath of the 2006-2007 resort-leasehold gambling game that saw the creation of a handful of overnight millionaires.
A millionaire or a billionaire, according to conventional thinking is someone who has a net worth of a million or a billion, measured in a major international currency such as the US Dollar or Euro. This definition unfortunately excludes, from the millionaire / billionaire club, wannabes who are eager to somehow do some clever math in Indonesian Rupiah to get into this elite club. (There goes my hope of ever claiming to be a billionaire!)
Now going back to the original question – is Mr. Qasim a billionaire? In the absence of tax returns or disclosure requirements this is difficult to ascertain with absolute certainty. But based on anecdotal evidence assuming that Mr. Gasim owns 10 resorts in Maldives, a few hotels overseas and shares in several local companies, and has liabilities of almost similar magnitudes, it is highly unlikely that Mr. Qasim’s net worth would even be USD200 million.
Another question that begs to be asked is - Is there a billionaire in Maldives? I still remember how I had a lengthy argument with a local businessman a few months ago when he said Mr. Champa Afeef will make it to the Forbes list in a year. For a while I thought my friend was joking. It was hard to believe that this fairly well-educated man in his forties, who has spent half his lifetime doing a sizable private business, was unable to have an appreciation of the arithmetics needed to figure out that an economy that’s entire value hovers around only a billion US dollars cannot possibly produce an individual billionaire. Do 300 feet-tall Sierra redwoods grow on our islands? Or has anyone ever spotted a 100 ton blue whale swimming in our lagoons? I, for one, would be happy to see the New Year 2009 produce a Maldivian billionaire, but the hard fact of the matter is that the size of our economy is infinitesimally small to give rise to a Warren Buffett or a Lakshmi Mittal. It is highly unlikely that even the combined net worth of Mr. Qasim, Mr. M.U Manik and Mr. Champa Afeef would tally a billion dollars!
Wish you a very Happy New Year!
A millionaire or a billionaire, according to conventional thinking is someone who has a net worth of a million or a billion, measured in a major international currency such as the US Dollar or Euro. This definition unfortunately excludes, from the millionaire / billionaire club, wannabes who are eager to somehow do some clever math in Indonesian Rupiah to get into this elite club. (There goes my hope of ever claiming to be a billionaire!)
Now going back to the original question – is Mr. Qasim a billionaire? In the absence of tax returns or disclosure requirements this is difficult to ascertain with absolute certainty. But based on anecdotal evidence assuming that Mr. Gasim owns 10 resorts in Maldives, a few hotels overseas and shares in several local companies, and has liabilities of almost similar magnitudes, it is highly unlikely that Mr. Qasim’s net worth would even be USD200 million.
Another question that begs to be asked is - Is there a billionaire in Maldives? I still remember how I had a lengthy argument with a local businessman a few months ago when he said Mr. Champa Afeef will make it to the Forbes list in a year. For a while I thought my friend was joking. It was hard to believe that this fairly well-educated man in his forties, who has spent half his lifetime doing a sizable private business, was unable to have an appreciation of the arithmetics needed to figure out that an economy that’s entire value hovers around only a billion US dollars cannot possibly produce an individual billionaire. Do 300 feet-tall Sierra redwoods grow on our islands? Or has anyone ever spotted a 100 ton blue whale swimming in our lagoons? I, for one, would be happy to see the New Year 2009 produce a Maldivian billionaire, but the hard fact of the matter is that the size of our economy is infinitesimally small to give rise to a Warren Buffett or a Lakshmi Mittal. It is highly unlikely that even the combined net worth of Mr. Qasim, Mr. M.U Manik and Mr. Champa Afeef would tally a billion dollars!
Wish you a very Happy New Year!
33 comments:
i think the question is... what is the average networth of an ordinary Maldivian, and what is it likely to be in six months time... and how many of us are even thinking about it...
I guess the average networth of a Maldivian will be negative... And what does that mean?
Let's hear the economists say something...
there are two billionaires in Maldives.
1. OMF - Ogaru Mohamed Fulhu
2. Chandhanee mohodhey
you got it all wrong, naimbey. Gayoom and yaameen are both bilionaires.
I guess we Maldivians are counting billionaires in terms of Rufiya not dollars. In that sense the long time perception is that Qasim Ibrahim is the only billionaire in Maldives but this perception is persisting because Qasim is the only one who is flamboyant enough to show off his wealth with his philanthropy and such. I bet there will be other billionaires (in Rufiya terms again) from Universal, Champa, Makhma, Kandi, etc dynasties because they have overseas investments as well.
Hilath, isnt that what the author is referring to? I'm sure you are a bilionaire in the currency of Zimbabwe. thats wrong. there is no such thing as a Rufiya bilionaire and Indonesian rupiah bilionaire.
How would you measure a net worth of a person? Is it measured by how much he has on his savings a/c? or How much he earns in one year? NO!
In the case of Gasim he currently owns 5 major resorts in operation (with 2,160 beds) and few more coming. He owns the major shares of the cable company (Media Net), two fish factories (the largest two in the country), few more picnic islands, a gas company, a shipping company, few travel agents, an international media channel (realityTV), a political party and few wives and few children here and there. All these put together could be worth a billion dollars. In other words, he could sell all these (and yes he might sell his wifes or children, because some of them are actually bought by him) and get one billion US$ easily. He could mortgage these and raise that much has well. So our friend Ahmed Abdulla (who recently joined Gasim's Party) is right to right on his news paper Miadhu (probably owned by Gasim) to write that Gasim is a Billionaire or even a Trillionaire.
networth: the amount by which a company or individual's assets exceed their liabilities.
I guess we'd never know unless they go for an audit.
I think Koli Mohodhey and Burumaa are both USD Multi-Millionares.
And the reason why they can't go into Forbes is because they'd need to disclose their incomes, which they wouldn't do.
anonymous 7:31 - even if the networth of someone is a couple of million dollars they are multi-millionaires. A billionaire is literally a thousand times richer than a millionaire. So there is a hell of a lot of difference. so, koli mohodhey and buruma cant make it to the list. As naimbe says the size of our economy is farr too small to produce a billionaire.
Happy New Year to, Naeembe. Didi
ok. they are no billionaires in Maldives. i take your word for it. but there are a number of millionaires in this country when over 90 percent is living from pay check to pay check. why dont you write to highlight this huge income discrepancy?
Rauf
lol. i think miadhu says biliyanaru...which is kinda different from a billionaire. it means:
a)a very rich person.a person among richest in the country.
b) see; burumaa gaasim.
c)a member of the koli clan.
d)any local businessman with a briefcase, who goes to bangkok every other month or more often.
oh..and happy new year to you too.
Thank you Shihab, Hilath, Didi and Moyameeha for your comments.
@ Shihab – “I guess the average net worth of a Maldivian will be negative... And what does that mean?” I think that will make a good blog post.
@ Anonymous 2:20 – thanks for replying to Hilath.
@ Anonymous 4:03 - thanks for you reply to anonymous 3:02.
@ Moyameehaa – thank you for sharing your thoughts on the term ‘biliyanaru’ ;-)
naimbe. how do u say that the combined wealth of the three richest ppl is not 1 billion dollars? my question is how do you know that? did they tell you anything about their wealth?
naseer
you say that the economy is not enough to produce billionaires. People like Gasim do and koli clan do business in many countries. So your analysis is very weak and narrow to say that. Probably not well researched.
@ anonymous 7:28 and anonymous 1:58 - even if Gasim and Koli has 10 hotels each outside Maldives, that wouldnt make them billionaires. Do you really know how much money a billion dollars is? if you place a billion dollars side by side probably it will go to moon and back. you guys are real idiots to be thinking that Gasim is a billionaire. I would bet my last cent that Gasim's networth would not exceed USD100 million. next time you open your fly trap better think.
true. most maldivian wannabe rich guys brag like as if a million dollars or even a billion dollars is a small amount of money. C'mon guys...Madonna's networth is only a half a billion dollars. so, how could there be a billionaire in Maldives? How could someone like buruma or koli be twice as rich as madonna? this isnt a matter to be debated about.
this man Gasim has got so much of debts. if someone ever does his accounts correctly he would not be worth even 30 million USd dollars. And yet some ppl are so foolish to think he is a billionnaire.
good post. Regards, Ali.
Qasim said he is worth $456 million in 2000, according to his interview for the Adduvas Weekly. He has been doing business for more than 20 years then. How could he double it in 8 years time?
anon 12.33 - and then u believed that moron gasim? he is not worth even a 100 million dollars if you really calculate his networth. very soon the man will have to sell off some of his assets.
mr. woald benk man is not even worth anything.
anonymous @ 8:21 AM.
Look i dont know whether he is worth $456 million or not. But i am pretty sure that he culd not double it within 8 years cosiderin that he is still doin the same businessess and his company or the tourism industry in maldives has not grown that much since 2000. Tourism is the linchpin of his company and his main source of income right.
Salaam.
mr. woarld benku aka garoon seytu man is a moron. why do u even bother to talk about him.
We have only one billionaire here in the Maldives, and that is naasiraa, she is wise and we would never know how much she is worth, for sure more than a billion. She knows too much and is worth alot.
naasira? u mean ilyas first wife koligey nasira? she is rich. but there is no way she could be worth a billion dollars even if you include her oversized undies among her assets.
nonono.i no say kolige wife nasira.i say moyanaaasiraa.she rich woman.work hard.many money
moyanasira is perhaps a trillionaire. is there any such this as a trillinonaire, naimbe?
any1 who owns a resort is a millionaire
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who ever wrote this article is an idiot. When he said Qasim owns about 10 resorts doesn't he knows the value of a resort.
Its between 80m to 500 m.
SO imagine how much could it be. the value of Sun island is even more than 350 m. so watch it when u talk. And when u said combined wealth of Champa, Qasim and U. Manik it cant be a billion. so basically your saying the value of about 25 resorts and highest investments in Maldives cant be a billion. So you better go and start your math tuition and stop doing financial analysis.
who ever wrote this article is an idiot. When he said Qasim owns about 10 resorts doesn't he knows the value of a resort.
Its between 80m to 500 m.
SO imagine how much could it be. the value of Sun island is even more than 350 m. so watch it when u talk. And when u said combined wealth of Champa, Qasim and U. Manik it cant be a billion. so basically your saying the value of about 25 resorts and highest investments in Maldives cant be a billion. So you better go and start your math tuition and stop doing financial analysis.
Gasims networth is USD600 million written in his profile on wiki
Noway Sunisland value is 350 m ! Please !
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