Top 10 richest men in Algeria
It must be recognized that it remains challenging to measure an individual’s total wealth in Algeria. Money is still a big taboo in our society despite some deceptive appearances. For security, political and socio-cultural considerations, the wealthiest people are forced into hiding.
In addition, it isn’t effortless to exhaustively examine all the bank accounts, real estate properties, paintings, yachts, and private jets of the great Algerian fortunes.
It is also clear that their owners hide immense fortunes in discreet jurisdictions abroad and opaque international structures in Algeria. But to overcome all these pitfalls and establish our ranking, Algeria was based mainly on the value of the shares held by these billionaires in companies.
The value of these stocks and holdings can change constantly depending on the financial results of these projects, but the fact remains that it reveals the extent of a person’s wealth.
Top 10 richest men in Algeria
1. Issad Rebrab: $4.8 billion
Despite all the obstacles he faces in Algeria due to these political differences with the entourage of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Issad Rebrab continues to grow richer and develop a colossal fortune that we estimate at $4.8 billion.
Issad Rebrab is the founder and CEO of Cevital, Algeria’s largest private company, which owns one of the largest sugar refineries globally with a production capacity of 2 million tons per year.
Cevital owns European companies, including French appliance maker Groupe Brandt, an Italian steel mill, and a German water purification company. With all these assets, Rebrab will have to remain the wealthiest man in Algeria for a long time to come.
2. Ali Haddad: $1.8 billion
According to estimates, his fortune is valued at at least $1.8 billion. Its family group ETRHB is the second private group in Algeria. In recent years, Ali Haddad and his brothers have amassed a real fortune thanks to all the projects launched in the four corners of the country, especially in the vicinity of the capital Algiers.
According to our research, ETRHB increased its turnover from the equivalent of $70 million in 2006 to $400 million in 2015. Profits for Ali Haddad’s group exceeded $150 million in 2015.
3. Mahieddine Tahkout: $1.5 billion
Tahkout is the story of a man who started from nothing. A man who forged himself by going through all the most challenging trails in Algeria. Today, the man initiated into almost all businesses, trades, and several sectors of activity are at the head of a vast empire that extends from the automobile to the hotel industry. According to our estimates, Mahieddine Tahkout weighs at least $1.5 billion.
Its most popular and well-known investment is arguably Hyundai Algeria. In Tiaret, the businessman assembles the cars of the South Korean manufacturer. He is the second car salesman in Algeria after the essential and powerful French manufacturer Renault. And its future projects in the automobile assembly industry will allow it to remain on the podium of the three most enormous fortunes in Algeria for a long time.
4. Ahmed Mazouz: $1.2 billion
It is still almost unknown to the general public, but its projects and companies have great notoriety in Algeria. Ahmed Mazouz, the boss of the Mazouz group.
With a fortune estimated at $1.2 billion, Ahmed Mazouz has become a heavyweight in the private sector thanks in particular to the success of his takeover, formalized in the year 2007, of the N’gaous Conserves SPA brand.
With the large shopping and leisure centre of Bab Ezzouar, which he bought on October 26, 2016, Ahmed Mazouz aims to conquer the extensive distribution and leisure market in the country.
5. The Benhamadi family: $1.1 billion
It is the wealthiest family in all of eastern Algeri, the owners of the Condor Group, the manufacturer of household appliances and smartphones. Condor achieved a turnover of 900 million euros in 2017. It is the second seller of smartphones and phones in Algeria after the giant Samsung.
It has been a leader for years in Algeria in marketing televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines. Abderrahmane Benahamdi and his brothers lead an increasingly prosperous group that has decided to internationalize not to suffer the vagaries of the Algerian market.
6. Djilali Mehri: $1 billion
He was for a long time the richest man in Algeria. Djilali Mehri is part of the history of Algeria. He is undoubtedly the pioneer of the private sector.
He is chairman and CEO of Pepsi Algeria, a holding company for Maghreb and Middle East investors. He has a project to build 36 hotels with Accor in major Algerian cities.
But despite his advanced age and the transfer of a large part of his business to France, Djilali Mehri weighs at least $1 billion in his native Algeria. Djilali Mehri started in business at a very young age.
7. The Kouninef family: $800 million
It is the most powerful family in Algeria. Karim, Réda, and Noah are involved in Algeria’s most profitable and juiciest projects. You should know that the Kouninef family has been in business in Algeria since the 1970s. The founding father of this family, which has become one of the richest in Algeria.
The flagship company of the family group is called KouGC. This company concentrates on the most expensive and lucrative activities of the Kouninef. It has become the largest private Algerian company in the hydraulics sector. Its turnover exceeds 140 million dollars.
8. Mourad Eulmi: $700 million
He is the prince of German cars in Algeria. Volkswagen’s official representative in Algeria since 1999, he ended up joining the closed club of the country’s biggest fortunes in recent years.
For nearly a decade, Mourad Eulmi with his company Sovac captured the third share of the Algerian market after Renault and Peugeot
9. Mohamed Laid Benamor: $500 million
He is the president of the Algerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CACI). Mohamed Laid Benamor is a heavyweight in the Algerian private sector.
The family group he heads, the Benamor group, has a turnover of over $250 million. For years, this businessman ruled the food industry. Its products, pasta, semolina, etc., are exported abroad.
10. Abdelmalek Sahraoui: $430 million
He was elected MP in previous parliamentary elections. FLN deputy Abdelmalek Sahraoui is undoubtedly the wealthiest deputy in all of Algeria. And for a good reason, he is the owner of the brand of lubricants and petroleum products Petroser.
A senior official at FCE Ali Haddad, the boss of Petroser, earns a lot of money thanks to disconcerting facilities offered to him by public banks and local authorities of several Wilayas, including Mascara and El-Bayadh, which welcome his large agricultural lands.
