Friday, February 3, 2012

Pakistani-American's $112 Million Yacht

Shahid Khan, Pakistani-American owner of an NFL team, has put his luxury yacht up for sale. Asking price: $112 million.

The Pakistani-American owner of Jacksonville Jaguars NFL franchise owns the 223-foot Kismet, a German-made yacht built in 2007. The boat has an expansive bedroom suite, a formal dining salon, disco, teak decks, jacuzzi, sauna and gym. High-end woodwork adorns everything from a beer keg to a motorcycle hatch with crane. There's also a 25-foot Chris Craft boat, Yamaha WaveRunners and other surpasses, according to the Florida Times-Union.



The ship is listed for sale by Moran Yacht & Ship, which charters the Kismet. For those who can't afford the $112 million price, the yacht is available for $600,000 a week plus expenses for Caribbean cruises this winter.



Shahid Khan made history last year by becoming the first ever minority owner of a National Football League team. All 31 other owners of NFL teams are white. Khan paid $760 million to purchase Jacksonville Jaguars. Earlier, Khan had agreed in February 2010 to buy a controlling interest in the St. Louis Rams before billionaire Stan Kroenke exercised an option to purchase the 60 percent of the club he didn’t own.



Shahid Khan, a mechanical engineering graduate of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, made his fortune in the auto business. Almost two-thirds of all North American-built pick- up trucks and sports utility vehicles have bumper systems based on Khan’s designs, according to figures released by the Jaguars. Khan bought Flex-N-Gate in 1980 and the company now has more than 10,000 employees at 48 manufacturing plants with annual sales exceeding $3 billion.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice to know that at least a pakistani is doing well in the west. This is one positive news after a long time. Also good news these days is there hasnt been a big terrorist attack for couple of months. I hope after the elections economic environment will be favourable for foreign investments.

Riaz Haq said...

Here's a recent Forbes story on Shahid Khan:

Last week’s sale of the Jacksonville Jaguars thrust soon-to-be new NFL owner Shahid Khan into the spotlight. A low profile private businessman for 30 years at Flex-N-Gate, an international auto supply company, he had rarely appeared in national press and never before was listed among the Forbes 400 Richest Americans or on our list of the world’s billionaires. Khan’s acquisition of the NFL team for $760 million and the strong performance of his company suggest that indeed he may be one of the richest people in America.

A naturalized U.S. citizen, Khan immigrated from Pakistan in 1967 at age 16. He built his wealth, which is likely enough to earn him a spot among the world’s billionaires in our 2012 rankings, through Flex-N-Gate, which he originally joined while earning his engineering degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Khan left Flex-N-Gate in1978 to found his own company, Bumper Works, and created a new one-piece car bumper design that would become the industry standard. He bought his former employer two years later and merged operations. Over the next two decades, Khan expanded Flex-N-Gate’s operations with contracts to provide parts to many of the largest automobile companies, including Toyota.

Still a private company, Flex-N-Gate surpassed $3 billion in sales this year, according to the company, making it the 14th largest North American automotive supplier. It employs over 12,450 people internationally at plants throughout Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, and Spain. Flex-N-Gate’s manufacturing expertise has expanded to include interior and exterior plastics, lighting systems, mechanical assemblies, metal structural body components, and exterior metal parts.

Khan previously tried to buy the St. Louis Rams last year, but was blocked when fellow billionaire and then-minority Rams owner Stan Kroenke exercised his right of first refusal option to purchase the team himself. He has agreed to pay $760 million this time for 100 percent control of the Jaguars; that price includes the assumption of the team’s debt and some debt of his own.

The new Jaguars owner has a complicated history with the IRS, which accused Khan and his wife of trying to illegally shelter $250 million from federal taxes from 1999 to 2003. Khan, who has said he repaid the $68 million in disputed taxes, currently has lawsuits pending against both the IRS and his former financial advisers.

Outside of Flex-N-Gate, Khan also founded and owns two smaller companies, Bio-Alternative, a bio-diesel tech company, and Smart Structures, which monitors the structural health of bridges.

Khan and his wife Ann have also given back millions of dollars to their alma mater, the University of Illinois. On campus, they’ve endowed five Khan Professorships, the Khan Annex library expansion, and the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2011/12/05/private-billionaire-shahid-khan-revealed-in-jaguars-sale/

Riaz Haq said...

The world's wealthiest Pakistani has arrived in London and in some style as well.

Florida-based multi-billionaire Shahid Khan sailed into the Thames this week in his brand-spanking new 308-foot long mega-yacht, appropriately-named 'Kismet'.

Mr Khan 64, is in the capital not only to watch his National Football League (NFL) team, the Jacksonville Jaguars play in an NFL game at Wembley Stadium this weekend but also to take in some matches featuring his Premiership Football team Fulham FC, which he bought for a reported £200 million from Harrod's owner Mohammed Al Fayed last year.

According to reports, Mr Khan - the world's 367th wealthiest individual with a personal fortune of £3 billion - bought his latest toy after selling up his previous yacht, which was a mere 223 feet in length.

The arrival of the sleek vessel, built by famed German yacht-builders Lurssen unsurprisingly attracted plenty of attention around Canary Wharf with dozens of people clicking photographs and enquiring who the boat belonged to.

http://ukasiaonline.com/opulent-world-s-richest-pakistani-sails-into-london-in-some-style.html