Khalid mohammed mahdi al tajir biography

Scotland's richest people got richer over the past year, with a record number of billionaires, according to The Sunday Times.

The paper's Rich List for 2013 counted six Scottish billionaires - four more than two years ago.

Scotland's richest man was named as Mahdi al-Tajir, owner of mineral water firm Highland Spring.

The Sunday Times estimated his fortune at £1.65bn, making him the 44th richest person in the UK.

Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov topped the Sunday Times ranking for Britain and Ireland, with a fortune of £13.3bn.

The combined wealth of Scotland's 100 richest people amounted to a record £21.1bn - almost double the level in 2004.

The number of people in Scotland among Britain's richest people also hit a 10-year high, with 78 joining the latest list, compared with 74 last year.

Mr al-Tajir, 81, who is a former UAE ambassador to the UK, owns a 24,000 acre estate near Gleneagles, Perthshire, and splits his time between there and London.

He has interests in metal, oil and gas trading and a large property portfolio, as well as running Highland Spring.

Bahraini-Emirati businessman (born 1931)

Mohammed Mahdi Al Tajir (Arabic: محمد مهدي التاجر) (born 26 December 1931) is a Bahrana-Emirati businessman based in the United Kingdom. He was the first United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United Kingdom and non resident ambassador to France.^[1] Al Tajir spends much of his time at his London home or at Keir House, his 18,000-acre (73 km²) Stirlingshire estate. He has interests in finance and property, and owns the Highland Spring bottled water company.^[2]

Al Tajir was named one of Scotland's richest men with wealth of £1.72 billion in the Sunday Times Rich List 2010.^[2]

Life

Mohammed Mahdi Al Tajir was born in December 1931^[3] in Bahrain, and educated at Preston Grammar School in Lancashire.^[4] Al Tajir is married with five children.^[5]

Al Tajir's 15,000 acre Blackford estate in Perthshire, Scotland is owned by his company Park Tower Holding Establishment, based in the tax haven of Liechtenstein.^[6] Al Tajir also owns London's Sheraton Park Tower Hotel at 101 Knightsbridge near Hyde Park^[4] and Mereworth Castle in Kent, which he purchased in 1976 for $1.2 million.^[7]

In the 1980s, he attempted to broke

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