Here is a brief excerpt from an article by Katia Savchuk for Forbes magazine. To read the complete article, check out others, and obtain subscription information, please click here.
Photo: Laura Stevens for Forbes
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Mohed Altrad doesn’t know how old he is. No document recorded the day he was born into a Bedouin tribe wandering the Syrian desert. To make birthdays easier, his children recently picked Mar. 9 out of a hat. As for the birth year, he had to choose one when he came to Montpellier, France, 46 years ago to start a new life–1948 sounded about right. Altrad didn’t speak French back then and survived on just one meal a day. He didn’t know a soul.
Today his name is hard to miss in Montpellier. It repeats at least a dozen times across the undulating silver walls of the city’s rugby stadium, recently rechristened for Altrad and his eponymous company. From his owner’s box, Altrad, bundled in a navy blue coat that complements his graying curly hair, gazes down at the seats below that often hold a crowd of 15,000. “It’s strange,” he says softly. “Normally people only have their names on things when they’ve passed away.”
Civic duty called. In 2011 Montpellier’s mayor reached out to its richest resident, asking him to ensure the survival of the financially struggling 29-year-old Hérault Rugby, and so Altrad, who had never even been to a match, stepped up and bought the squad. Now the new owner goes to every game, as a red pin proudly accents his navy blazer, a symbol of the Legion of Honor, France’s equivalent of knighthood, which he received in 2005.
Altrad is France’s Horatio Alger story. He overcame those extremely humble beginnings to build the Altrad Group into one of the world’s leading scaffolding providers, with revenues exceeding $1 billion. Scaffolding, a low-tech industry that traces its roots to ancient Egypt, is as close to a commodity as it gets. But Altrad gooses net margins, which FORBES estimates clock in around 6%, in part by providing everything from cement mixers to wheelbarrows, and he has expanded aggressively through acquisition. After a quarter-century of steady revenue and profit growth, Altrad saw its sales double over the past five years, making his stake (he owns 80% of the company) worth an estimated $1 billion–and securing his spot as a new member of the FORBES World Billionaires list.
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Here is a direct link to the complete article.
According to Katia Savchuk, “I cover the richest people on the planet as part of Forbes’ wealth team. I report on how billionaires make, spend and lose their fortunes and track wealth across the globe for the Forbes World’s Billionaires list and the Forbes 400 Richest Americans list. I’m interested in how the 1% use their money to help others – or peddle influence to engage in wrongdoing. In the past, I’ve reported for the Miami Herald, ProPublica, The Center for Investigative Reporting, GlobalPost, the Village Voice, and other publications. I was also a fellow at the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University. Follow me on Twitter @katiasav. Send tips or comments to ksavchuk@forbes.com.”