Out of Syria’s Chaos, a Tycoon Builds a Fortune

Samer Foz has managed the rare feat amid the ravaged nation’s wartime economy of getting rich without getting sanctioned

HOMS, Syria—Fighting has reduced whole neighborhoods of Syria’s third-largest city to ruins. The acres of scrap metal left behind are now being melted into rebar by a steel plant to rebuild demolished homes.

The plant is owned by Samer Foz, a tycoon who built a fortune out of a war that shattered his country.

In a country many businessmen...