Algosaibi Family Ordered by U.K. Court to Show Saudi Assets
Saudi Arabia’s Algosaibi family and their company, which defaulted in 2009, were ordered by a U.K. judge to disclose their assets after admitting liability in a $250 million lawsuit by HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and four other banks.
Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Co. and more than a dozen “wealthy” family members must provide lists of all assets worth $50,000 or more by Aug. 4, including property in Saudi Arabia, Justice Julian Flaux ruled today in the High Court in London.
Algosaibi, which had sought as many as six weeks to catalogue its Saudi possessions, was also told to reveal if any business assets had been moved irregularly since June 16, when the family dropped its defense during a trial on the banks’ claims. The company still hasn’t made a public offer to pay the banks, Flaux said.
A Saudi court order freezing Algosaibi’s assets in the country “isn’t preventing the family from carrying on quite expensive litigation all around the world,” Tim Lord, a lawyer for London-based HSBC, said at the hearing. “It’s about time they pay off these debts.”
The case is part of a global dispute between Algosaibi and one of Saudi Arabia’s richest men, Maan al-Sanea, who married into the Algosaibi family and founded the Saad Group, which has businesses ranging from construction to health care. Units of Saad and Algosaibi, both based in the Saudi oil city of Al- Khobar, defaulted after borrowing about $15.7 billion from more than 80 banks. Algosaibi has sued al-Sanea in the Cayman Islands, Saudi Arabia and New York, accusing him of heaping debt on the company by taking out fraudulent loans.
Liability Admission
Algosaibi, with interests including construction, beverage bottling and finance, “remains willing to negotiate with banks toward a fair and comprehensive resolution,” the law firm Baach Robinson & Lewis Pllc in Washington said in a statement on behalf of Algosaibi. “AHAB does not have the funds to pay the massive amounts that were borrowed in its name.”
Algosaibi’s admission of liability last month prompted HSBC and the other lenders, including London-based British Arab Commercial Bank Ltd., to question how Algosaibi planned to pay them back and whether it would still admit liability if the dispute moved to countries that don’t recognize English law.
The London case, stemming from the largest Saudi default to come out of the credit crunch, includes HSBC’s $85 million claim, British Arab Commercial Bank’s $19 million claim, Arab Banking Corp.’s claims totaling $140 million and Credit Agricole SA (ACA)’s $6 million claim.
Algosaibi also admitted liability in a separate U.K. case in which European Islamic Investment Bank Plc (EIIB), a London-based lender whose deals comply with Sharia law, seeks payment of a $78 million claim on behalf of group of other lenders.
Standard Chartered Plc, the U.K.’s third-largest bank by market value, sought permission today to use witness documents from the HSBC case.
To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page