UAE's super rich splurge millions on rare licence plates

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

ABU DHABI (AFP) — The super rich in the United Arab Emirates are bidding massive sums of money for out-of-the-ordinary car licence plates as the Gulf state basks in an oil-driven economic boom.

One particularly wealthy businessman on Saturday forked out a record 14 million dollars for a licence plate at a charity auction in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi.

"It is not huge compared to my family's fortune," Saeed Abdel Ghaffar Khouri told AFP after he bid 52.2 million dirhams (14.2 million dollars) for an Abu Dhabi licence plate bearing the single number "1".

"The price is fair. After all, who among us does not want to be number one?" asked Khouri, whose fortune was made in real estate and stocks.

Asked what he planned to do with the licence plate, the...

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