A wealthy bidder has spent a world record 55 million dirhams ($15 million or Rs 123 crore) for a rare car number plate in Dubai, which he used to vandalize a bar in the United Arab Emirates more than a decade ago.
Emirates Auction LLC sold plate number P 7 — which at first glance looks like the number 7 alone, with the P next to it — on Saturday in a charity auction, the company said. Proceeds will go to the ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid’s global food aid initiative, the 1 Billion Meals Endowment.
The UAE has made a habit of auctioning off vanity plates, used by the ultra-rich to show off their status and wealth, for charity. The latest auction broke a record set in 2008 by local businessman Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri, who paid 52.2 million dirhams for a sign bearing the number 1 in Abu Dhabi.
The identity of this weekend’s auction winner has not been revealed.
Watch: A new record was set last night, when car number plate P7 was sold for a whopping Dh55 million at auction in Dubai https://t.co/9bLBrLKedvpic.twitter.com/xtFG4FrDEZ
— Khaleej Times (@khaleejtimes) April 9, 2023
Vanity plates have also fetched eye-popping prices outside the Middle East: Someone bought the one-letter “R” plate at an auction in Hong Kong for HK$25.5 million ($3.2 million) earlier this year.
For years, Dubai has been a safe place for the mega-rich to showcase their wealth and live a tax-free life. While other parts of the world worry about an economic downturn, the emirate’s economy remains strong – with high oil prices benefiting neighboring countries and key customers. An influx of wealth has boosted the real estate market.
Even reasonably paid expats spend a lot of money on cars that they can only afford thanks to lower VAT rates than at home. But the recent Covid-era boom has pushed up rents and put pressure on middle-class residents.
Businessman Balvinder Singh Sahni, better known as Abu Sabah, bought plate D 5 for 33 million dirhams in 2016. “Dubai is a city of gold,” he said in an interview on Monday. “It’s a city of big people, safe people, nice people. So everyone wants to show their status.”
Sahni told how when he first visited the Burj Al Arab luxury hotel in 2006, he was refused entry because his car’s number plate had too many numbers. He was told he needed a two-digit license plate, or a reservation. “It was always my dream to have a single-digit number,” he said. “When I got the chance and they told me this money is all going to charity, I went all in.” Sahni, a self-proclaimed numbers man, said the D 5 plate fit because his favorite number is nine, and if you add D (the fourth letter of the alphabet) to five, you get nine.
The Guinness World Records did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The plate sold over the weekend can be transferred to any car registered in the Emirate, supercar or not.
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