20 | FORBES ASIA MAY 2017

JEAN PAUL THOMAS/ICON SPORT VIA GETTY IMAGES

S

yrian-born Mohed Altrad arrived in Mont-

pellier, France, from Syria in 1969 during an

out pouring of anti-Arab senti ment. A few

years earlier, Algeria had won its indepen-

dence from France in a bloody war, provok-

ing a backlash towards anyone Algerian or Arab. “It

was hostile,” remembers Altrad, now 69. He came to

study on a scholarship at the University of Montpel-

lier, leaving behind his own bitter memories of Syria,

where his father, a bedouin tribesman, abandoned

him as an in fant following his mother’s death.

Altrad endured prejudice in France, but he proved

his worth—and then some. He became a citizen,

wrote a prizewinning novel, mar ried a Frenchwom-

an, purchased a rugby team, had a stadium named

after him and bought a bankrupt French scaffolding

business.

The Montpellier-based Altrad Group is now one

of the world’s leading manufactur ers of scaffolding

and cement mixers, earn ing $144 million in net profit

on $2.4 billion in revenue in fiscal 2016. Altrad, who

owns 80% of the company, has amassed a fortune

Forbes Asia estimates at $1.6 billion.

More than four decades after arriving in France,

Altrad is a shining example of what an immigrant

can bring to a new country. But even after receiving

the Legion of Honor in 2005 for his accomplish-

ments, he sometimes feels he might never be able to

be French enough.

Always simmering beneath the surface, anti-Arab

sentiment flared up again in France following a series

of deadly terrorist attacks by French and Belgian

citizens of North African descent. Campaigning on

an anti-immigration platform and regularly invoking

Islamophobic rhetoric, right-wing politician Marine

Le Pen has become a serious contender in France’s

up coming presidential election in May.

But what’s happening in France isn’t iso lated.

The Outsider

BY SAMUEL WENDEL

Born destitute in Syria, Mohed Altrad went to France and made

a fortune. With xenophobia sweeping through Europe, can an

Arab immigrant like him make it big today?

FORBES ASIA

IMMIGRANT’S TALE