JEDDAH: Prominent Saudi businessman Khalid Salem Bin Mahfouz, who once headed National Commercial Bank (NCB), died of heart failure on Sunday. Born in 1949, Bin Mahfouz is survived by his wife Naelah Kaaki and three children, Abdulrahman, Sultan and Eman.
According to the family, the second son of NCB founder Salem Bin Mahfouz (who passed away in 1994) felt a pain in his chest Saturday night while at home in Jeddah’s Al-Andalus district and was rushed to a hospital. He died just before Isha prayers the following day. He was laid to rest at Al-Faisaliah cemetery in Jeddah early Monday morning.
With a personal wealth estimated to be around $3.2 billion, Bin Mahfouz ranked 24th in Arabian Business magazine’s list of the world’s richest people in 2008.
Before his death, Bin Mahfouz was running an international investment group with his sons. He was also a partner in many world real estate and communications companies.
Recently Bin Mahfouz cleared his name from accusations he was funding terrorism through the Blessed Relief charity of the Muwafaq Foundation, an organization devoted to famine relief.
Bin Mahfouz was a poet, a supporter of sports and had shares in a number of press organizations, including the Saudi Research and Marketing Group (or SRMG, which publishes Arab News). His son, Abdulrahman, is a member of the SRMG board of directors.
