THE 64-year-old billionaire president of the United Arab Emirates is worth more than Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates combined.
And now he has offered disgraced royal Andrew, 65, a luxurious escape from the UK.
The former prince is being forced to move out of Royal Lodge, his sprawling mansion in Windsor, and will soon be banished by the King to a remote cottage on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.
But Mohammed bin Zayed, the eye-wateringly wealthy head of the Abu Dhabi royal family, known as MBZ, is understood to be urging Andrew to flee to the Middle East where he can live in the lap of luxury away, hidden far from prying eyes.
Andrew has already been forced to give up his titles over scandals linked to his paedo pal Jeffrey Epstein and is said to be considering taking the Sheikh up on his offer of a new life in exile.
And he could soon be living like a Sultan in a six-bedroom palace with tight security.
LIVE LIKE A SULTAN
Andrew tipped to live in Abu Dhabi palace with Fort Knox-like security
ANDY’S CRYPTO PALS
Andy fixed visit to Palace for crypto scheme which offered to pay Fergie
The UAE president boasts an eyewatering personal fortune of $30billion thanks to a lucrative mix of royal inheritance, oil revenues and savvy private investments.
He has offered Andrew free use of one of his many vast palaces in the desert kingdom, to show his gratitude for kindness he apparently showed the UAE royal family when he was the UK’s business envoy.
Andrew could move into a luxurious 1500 square metre palace with six en suite air-conditioned bedrooms, an indoor gym with swimming pool, a home cinema and large kitchen and live-in staff including a team of chefs.
The Sheikh’s main family home, triple the size of the Pentagon, is a $475million, 380,000-square-meter palace, which boasts a facade of white granite and limestone.
Inside, it is home to a towering 37-metre-wide dome and a chandelier made of 350,000 pieces of crystal.
The palace’s east wing includes a library with more than 50,000 books on the country’s cultural, social, and political history.
MBZ can certainly afford to be generous.
He owns football giants Manchester City and stakes in Mumbai City, Melbourne City and New York City football clubs, as well as swathes of London’s West End.
He has invested in lucrative high-profile ventures including Rihanna’s beauty company Fenty, Ferrari and Elon Musk’s Space X programme.
His vast car collection boasts more than 700 vehicles from classic luxury cars to ultra-modern ‘hypercars’ such as a 10-wheel, 24-tonne SUV called the Dhabiyan, the world’s largest SUV, and a 64-times larger replica of a Dodge Power Wagon.
Plus there are five Bugatti Veyrons, a Ferrari 599XX, McLaren MC12, Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR and a Lamborghini Reventon housed in four car museums across the UAE.
This includes the pyramid-shaped Emirates National Auto Museum in Morocco, which has won the Guinness Record for the most extensive collection of 4×4 vehicles.
High flyers
MBZ also owns enough planes to start his own airline.
The family’s Presidential fleet includes eight impressive aircraft, all lavishly furnished with bedrooms, bathrooms and spas.
As well as the mighty Airbus A320-200 and three Boeing 787-9, MBZ has also splashed out on a $450million Boeing 747 and a $180million Boeing 787 that can fly the entire royal family and their staff around the globe in utmost luxury.
They have such a bottomless pit of wealth that for a two-week family holiday to South Africa in May 2023, he built a brand new runway so his entourage could land their cargo planes full of cars, gym equipment and furniture.
He also flew in hundreds of staff including his own doctors, bodyguards and entertainers.
The family own three of the ten largest superyachts in the world – including Azzam, a 590ft behemoth that can accommodate more than 100 people and is so huge they can practise golf in the indoor driving range.
It took an army of 4,000 people to build the mammoth vessel, which burns an estimated 13 tonnes of fuel every hour.
But for that money you do at least get a specially-designed chandelier that doesn’t rattle when the boat is in action.
MBZ’s collection of trillionaire’s toys also includes the $600million, 525ft- long yacht Lurssen Blue, the fourth yacht in the world, and the A+, which has been borrowed by Hollywood star Leonardo Di Caprio not once, but twice.
The A+ boasts a dance floor, beach club, gym and wellness centre, complete with a spa, jacuzzi, steam room and beauty salon.
And there are plans for a mind-blowing new 459ft-long flagship yacht which will have two helipads, a submarine and luxury suites for 48 guests.
Hot property
The Sheikh’s father, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was nicknamed the “landlord of London” for snapping up high-end properties in some of the capital’s most exclusive neighbourhoods.
In 2005 alone he spent £1billion on five properties, according to court filings. By 2015, the portfolio had swelled in value with annual rental income of £160m, and by 2016 he had dozens of properties worth more than £1.2billion.
Today, the family’s UK property empire alone surpasses the Duke of Westminster, the British billionaire aristocrat who owns swathes of the city.
MBZ owns an entire street, Bruton Place, and swanky properties across Berkeley Square in Mayfair and the freehold of 95 buildings around it, which include the trendy Mayfair restaurant Sexy Fish, Annabel’s nightclub and the world’s oldest Bentley dealership.
His bulging portfolio is largely comprised of “super prime” commercial and residential properties in Knightsbridge, Westminster, and Kensington, and he currently has around 1,000 tenants.
Flats in one of the luxury blocks were recently on the market for about £20million each.
He also has the Time Life building on New Bond Street, and multiple high-end London office blocks occupied by hedge funds and investment banks.
He owns a row of 1960s-built houses on a quiet cul-de-sac near Richmond upon Thames, and in 2020 his property interests were at the heart of a high court dispute that heard claims the UAE president had installed tanks filled with Evian drinking water at his 18th-century mansion near Windsor.
The family owns a dozen palaces worldwide, including Chateau de Baillon north of Paris.
On top of that he has made huge contributions to the art world – in addition to building the Saadiyat Cultural District, a museum that houses more than 620 works of art, he recently opened the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the largest art museum on the Arabian peninsula filled with priceless art works.
Much of the country’s oil wealth flows straight into MBZ’s funds, but while they own six per cent of the world’s oil reserves, the Sheikh has prioritised diversifying away from dependence on oil.
He has significant stakes in banking and property companies, and has invested heavily in renewable energy, technology and education.
FESTIVE FEELS
John Lewis reveals tear-jerker Xmas ad set to nostalgic 90s house track
TRAFFIC CARNAGE
Major motorway shut with TWO-HOUR delays after crash between lorry & van
While he is one of the largest private landowners in UAE, he also played a key role in regional conflicts, including Yemen, and in forging the Abraham Accords, which improved relations with Israel in 2020.
Although he is not quite a trillionaire personally – yet – the Al Nahyans are considered the world’s wealthiest family with their vast fortune primarily derived from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which controls over $1trillion in assets.