Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Al-Amoudi has seen his net worth decline by $855 million since the start of the year, as the market value of his investments in industrial assets slumped significantly during the year.
Research conducted by Billionaires.Africa revealed that the $855-million reduction in his net worth translates to an average gain of $2.34 million per day for the billionaire since December.
Al-Amoudi, who controls a collection of industrial assets in Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Morocco, has seen his fortune decline by more than 11 percent since the year began.
Data retrieved from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index revealed that his net worth since the start of the year has dropped from $7.56 billion on Jan. 1 to $6.71 billion on Dec. 31. This translates to a wealth loss of $855 million for the Ethiopian billionaire since the beginning of 2021.
The staggering decline in his net worth was spurred by a revaluation of his assets, which includes his stake in Svenska Petroleum Exploration, Preem, Sweden’s largest oil refiner, and a 67-percent stake in Samir, Morocco’s only oil refiner.
The $855-million loss makes him one of the few African billionaires who recorded significant wealth declines in 2021.
The multimillion-dollar loss in his wealth is linked partly to the performance of his investment in Svenska and Preem, as the disruption in the oil and gas industry in 2020 impacted the performance of oil companies.
As a result, Preem posted a 31-percent decline in revenue in 2020 from SEK84.69 billion ($9.36 billion) in the previous year to SEK58.19 billion ($6.57 billion), while its gross profit for the period fell from SEK2.83 billion ($319.6 million) to SEK575 million ($64.9 million).
As of the time of the writing of this report, Al-Amoudi, who is the wealthiest man in Ethiopia and one of the richest men in Africa, has a net worth of $6.71 billion, making him the 425th richest man in the world.
