In Dubai, a rare number plate sold for a record 55 million dirhams (€13.7 million), breaking a world record. The details of the winner of the auction are yet to be revealed.
The P7 plaque was auctioned by Emirates Auctions LLC, which held a charity auction in another solidarity effort by the government, with proceeds going back to Dubai’s Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid’s $1 billion food aid program.
The auction broke the record set by local businessman Syed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri in 2008, when he paid 52.2 million dirhams for the No. 1 billboard in Abu Dhabi, Bloomberg reveals.
WATCH: A new record was set last night as a car number plate sold for Dh55 million at an auction in Dubai. https://t.co/9bLBrLKedv pic.twitter.com/xtFG4FrDEZ
— Khaleej Times (@khaleejtimes) April 9, 2023
In this country of the United Arab Emirates, government auctions bring in millions for charities, but they also serve as vanity treadmills for the super-rich to flaunt their status and wealth for a good cause.
Rare license plates have been auctioned for impressive sums. In Hong Kong, for example, the “R” sign was sold for HK$25.5 million (€2.9 million) earlier this year.
Businessman Balwinder Singh Sawhney, also known as Abu Sabah, bought the D 5 plate in 2016 for 33 million dirhams (8.2 million euros). “Dubai is a golden city,” he said in an interview, revealing to Bloomberg that it’s “a city of big people, safe people, cool people. So, everyone wants to show off their status.”
One of the examples Abu Saba gave was when he first visited the Burj Al Arab luxury hotel in 2006, when he was denied entry because his car had too many numbers on its license plate, and he had to have one to enter. -Digit registration number or reservation.
“When I got the chance, when they told me that all this money would go to charity, I went all in”, he underlined.