PARTY WITH PURPOSE

New Forbes billionaire Kabir Mulchandani, Founder and Chairman of FIVE Holdings, is building an entertainment ecosystem with a sustainable footprint. Now, he's talking IPO plans.

- Kabir Mulchandani

When Kabir Mulchandani entered the world of Dubai real estate in 2004, his approach was unashamedly opportunistic. The city was booming, and returns on equity were almost incalculable. Twenty years on, the founder and chairman of FIVE Holdings says that revenues at the hospitality group run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. According to Forbes, Mulchandani's personal wealth exceeds $2 billion, but the Mumbai-born businessman has a vision that extends far beyond finances. Front and center of the company strategy is sustainability, and the way he sees it, you cannot put a value on that.

"My view on sustainability is perhaps a little more extreme than others," ponders Mulchandani. "Creating profit without doing as much as possible for sustainability is wrong." The 51-year-old founder insists he is typically against government interference in business, but when it comes to protecting the planet, there should be more legislation, not less.

FIVE Holdings had 1,736 keys across the U.A.E. and Europe as of December 2023. Launched as SKAI in 2013 and rebranded to FIVE in 2017, the brand is known for its luxury hotels and entertainment extravaganzas, with a Dubai portfolio that includes FIVE Palm Jumeirah, FIVE Jumeirah Village, and the recently opened FIVE LUXE. The company also owns FIVE Zurich in Switzerland and acquired iconic nightclub brand Pacha in October 2023 in a deal valued at $322 million (EURO 302.5 million), with two operational hotels in Pacha's spiritual homeland of Ibiza.