Taha Mikati cofounded Beirut-based holding company M1 Group. Its investments include stakes in South African telecom firm MTN, fashion retailer Pepe Jeans, and prime real estate in New York, London, and Monaco. Mikati and his billionaire brother Najib founded Investcom in 1982, selling satellite phones at the height of Lebanon's civil war. They expanded into Africa, where they built cellphone towers in Ghana, Liberia, and Benin, among other countries. In 2005, Investcom went public on the London Stock Exchange, and in 2009, South Africa's MTN bought the Mikatis' stake for $3.6 billion.