Riyadh — Saudi Arabia will start auctioning real estate assets of billionaire Maan al-Sanea and his company on December 2 to help repay billions of dollars due to creditors, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The auction, originally planned for late October in the city of Khobar in Eastern Province, was delayed by a last-ditch attempt to reach a settlement, which failed to gain enough support from creditors, one source said.
Sanea, once ranked among the world’s 100 richest people by Forbes, was detained in 2017 for unpaid debts dating back to 2009 when his company, Saad Group, defaulted. Creditors have spent the past nine years pursuing Saad for debt repayment in what is Saudi Arabia’s longest-running debt dispute. The case is separate from the scores of Saudi businessmen and prominent figures who were held on corruption charges in 2017 at Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel, although it touches on similar investor concerns about corporate governance. Local, regional and...
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