Car licence plate sets world record

ABU DHABI: A licence plate sold for Dh52.2mn ($14mn) at auction yesterday, setting a world record and demonstrating the exceptional personal wealth in the United Arab Emirates.
Saeed Abdel Ghaffar Khouri, 25, bought the licence plate No 1, breaking the previous record held by his relative Talal Ali Mohamed Khouri, who acquired licence plate No 5 for Dh25.2mn in September, said Emirates Auction Managing Director Abdulla al Mannaie.
“We wanted to be No 1,'' Khouri's brother Hamdan Khouri told reporters after the sale. “Who doesn't like to be the best in the world?''
The UAE, owner of around 8% of the world's proven oil reserves and with a population of less than 5mn, had an average gross domestic product per capita of $55,200 in 2007, the seventh highest in the world, according to the CIA World Factbook, boosted by record oil prices that topped $100 this year.
The entire auction of 90 plates, including numbers 100, 1111, 2001 and 31313, raised Dh89mn, Al-Mannaie said.
Proceeds from the auction go toward building a specialised emergency hospital in the UAE, said Emirates Auction in its promotional material. The last five licence-plate auctions it organised raised $56mn from 300 plates, which went toward the support of special-needs projects and victims of road accidents, it said.
Khouri won the auction in Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace hotel amid chaotic scenes in the auditorium, which was packed with more than 700 people. The Abu Dhabi businessman had to push through photographers, cameramen and spectators to the front of the room to be seen by the auctioneer before thrusting his number into the air for the final time, his mobile phone at his ear throughout the bidding.
The sum of money was “normalâ€‌ for his family, Hamdan Khouri said after the auction. “I was prepared to spend as much as Dh100mn.â€‌  – Bloomberg