Saudi Arabia Prepares To Auction Detained Billionaires Real Estate, Cars — Sources

DUBAI, KHOBAR

Saudi authorities are preparing to auction billions of dollars of real estate and cars belonging to billionaire Maan Al Sanea and his company as they look to hasten an end to one of the kingdom’s longest-running debt disputes.

The planned sale is the latest signal that Saudi Arabia is serious about holding its elites to account. In an anti-corruption crackdown last November, authorities detained scores of senior officials on charges of alleged graft. Most have been released after being exonerated or agreeing to give the state money, assets or real estate.

The Al Sanea case is separate from the main anti-graft campaign. The businessman — in 2007 he was ranked by Forbes as one of the world’s 100 richest people — was detained by authorities late last year for unpaid debt dating back to 2009 when his company, Saad Group, defaulted on debts.

Creditors have spent the past nine years pursuing Saad, which is based in the city of Khobar in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, for debt that some estimate to be between 40 billion riyals (Dh39.19 billion; $10.67 billion) and 60 billion riyals.

Investors see the case as a litmus test of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman’s commitment to reforms.

Etqaan Alliance, the consortium appointed by Saudi authorities to liquidate assets owned by Al Sanea and the company in an effort to repay creditors, plans to begin selling the company’s assets in Saudi Arabia, according to several sources familiar with the matter. The sales will happen in the coming weeks, the sources said.

The liquidator has produced a slick video that it has posted on YouTube with the tagline “the sale everyone has been waiting for in Al Khobar” featuring some of the properties and land to be sold.

A brochure accompanying the sale includes a list of 20 plots of land owned by Saad Trading, part of Saad Group, and Al-Sanea.

The properties are mostly located in Khobar. The largest unit is a 484,407 square metre plot of land that includes buildings and a sewage water treatment plant.

The brochure does not include valuations, but the sources said the real estate was valued at around 4.4 billion riyals, based on an official list of real estate provided to authorities.