" Money's no object when it comes to being No. 1 "
ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- When Saeed
Khouri showed up at a swanky hotel for the Emirates charity auction on Saturday
night, he was willing to pay anything to be No 1. As it turned out, he had to
pay $14-million.
Mr. Khouri, a shy, cherubic, 25-year-old
property developer, set a new world record with his purchase of Abu Dhabi's
licence plate bearing the number 1.
It was the first number plate issued by the
Abu Dhabi Police Department, which last year produced an alternative line of
licence plates to be exclusively auctioned off for charity.
The red-bordered plates are nearly identical,
and just as legal as the black plates assigned by the transit authority.
But in the UAE, the red plates have become a
status symbol, with low or unique numbers signalling the wealth and prestige of
the driver behind the wheel.
"I bought number one because I want to get the
best and most expensive number in the world," he explained backstage after the
auction, cradling his car plate like a newborn baby.
On the other side of the curtain, a crazed
throng of 1,000 people rushed the stage. The air was thick with smoke. The floor
was covered in pastel confetti.
The state-owned auction sold 90 licence plates
over the weekend, raising more than $24-million.
The windfall would go toward financing the
building of a rehabilitation centre for victims of road accidents, which killed
312 people in the UAE in 2006, the last year for which figures were available.
Surveying the scene from stage left was
auction manager Abdullah al Mannaie. The plate auction was his idea, conceived
to launch the first Emirati auction house.
Last year, Abu Dhabi's ruling family
commissioned him and a handful of other trusted associates to study the
feasibility of such an endeavour.
"The United Arab Emirates is so far advanced
in other areas, like property and business, but an auction was missing. It was
an error and we tried to correct it," Mr. al Mannaie said.
The team crisscrossed the world, visiting Hong
Kong, Australia and the United Kingdom to determine what kind of auction
business would appeal to Abu Dhabi, which is both deeply conservative and
enormously rich, with the highest per capita income in the world.
There were some unexpected problems: When a
French firm tried to launch an auction house a few years ago in Dubai, it failed
miserably. ("Nobody trusted the French, they didn't think they would sell
anything genuine," Mr. al Mannaie confided.)
So he proposed joining forces with the Abu
Dhabi Police Department to lend the plate contest credibility.
However, in a country where gambling is
prohibited and casinos are unheard of, it was difficult to explain the mechanics
of an auction to first-time bidders.
"People did not know what an auction was, so
when we gave them a bid paddle they first thought they were supposed to write
their bid on the back. Some people were also angry that we use cardboard paddles
instead of plastic. I was worried that if we used plastic, people would hurt
themselves, or each other," he added.
As for Mr. Khouri, his No. 1 prize will remain
locked in a safe at his family home in Abu Dhabi for now.
A car - most likely a Porsche, but perhaps a
Ferrari - will be custom-built to bear the plate at a fraction of what it cost
to buy it.
Source: [ ]
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