JEDDAH, 11 June 2003 — The Ministry of Commerce and Industry ordered a businessman yesterday to repay SR180 million to the National Commercial Bank, as part of repayments of a SR650 million loan the man had earlier taken out at the bank to build commercial and housing projects in Jeddah, sources told Arab News yesterday.
The businessman was able to persuade the bank to give him a loan of such magnitude based on assets to his name. The businessman also used the name of his company and his commercial record as long-term guarantees for the loans.
However, the businessman fell behind in his repayments.
A series of meetings between authorities and the businessman took place over five months to establish why he was remiss in meeting his obligations and continued to ignore an order issued by the Commerce Ministry’s Jeddah branch.
The matter was then taken to the legal committee at the ministry’s head office, which supported the decision taken by the Jeddah branch and ordered the businessman to return the loan in installments.
