The list of Forbes includes three UK Cypriot billionaires the Chris Lazari family and Stelios Hadjioannou and Poly Hadjioannou.
In 1096th place with a fortune of $2.8 billion are the Lazari family, Christos Lazari photo below was born in Dora, Limassol arrived in Britain at 16 years old In the early seventies he started working in the dress business eventually owning his own dress manufacturing business Drendie Girl before entering in the property investment business
Christos Lazari was also a member of the Radiomarathon children in need charity committee where he was well known for his philanthropic work.
brothers Stelios and Polys Haji-Ioannou: the former has a fortune of $1.1 billion and the latter is… poorer by $100 million.
The son of a Greek Cypriot shipping magnate, Stelios Hadjioannou below gets the bulk of his fortune from his stake in budget airline easyJet.
Stelios founded easyJet in 1995 after leaving his father’s company; his siblings Clelia and Polys both have large stakes in the airline.
The family’s collective stake dropped below 16% for the first time in 2021 amid ongoing disagreements with easyJet’s management.
Stelios maintains ownership of the easy brand through his private company, easyGroup.
Through his easyGroup, Stelios has licensed the easy name to such businesses as easyHotel, easyCar and easyCoffee.
Polys Hadjioannou is the son of late Cypriot shipping magnate Loucas Hadjioannou (he died in 2008), who once owned the world’s largest private tanker fleet.
Most of his wealth derives from a large stake in easyJet, the discount airline founded by his younger brother, Stelios.
Polys photo below continues the family’s shipping legacy with his own 17-tanker fleet.
He has also invested heavily in both commercial and residential real estate, particularly in Cyprus, Greece and Norway.
It should be noted that John Fredriksen, a naturalized Cypriot, is also on the relevant list. His fortune is $11.9 billion and he is ranked 158th on Forbes’ list of the richest people in the world.
Also another naturalised Cypriot is Yakir Gabay owns 10% of Frankfurt-listed German real estate company Aroundtown SA, where he serves as deputy chairman of the advisory board.
Aroundtown has a $30 billion-plus portfolio of commercial real estate in Europe.
It also has a 40% stake in Grand City Properties, which owns around 65,000 apartments in Germany and London.
Originally from Israel, Gabay previously served as CEO of the underwriting arm of Bank Leumi, one of Israel’s largest banks.
The 10 richest people in the world:
1) Elon Musk $219 billion
2) Jeff Bezos $171 billion
3) Bernard Arnault and family $158 billion
4) Bill Gates $129 billion
5) Warren Buffett $118 billion
6) Larry Page $111 billion
7) Sergey Brin $107 billion
8) Larry Ellison $106 billion
9) Steve Ballmer $91.4 billion
10) Mukesh Ambani $90.7 billion
