LONDON: A Cayman Islands court has frozen $9.2 billion of assets belonging to Saad Group, the Saudi Arabian investment firm at the center of a financial scandal, including some of its equity stakes outside the Gulf.
The ruling was in response to a complaint filed by indebted Saudi family conglomerate Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi and Brothers Company (AHAB), which is locked in a legal tussle in the United States with the billionaire owner of Saad Group, Maan Al-Sanea. Companies included in the Cayman court ruling, seen by Reuters, include Cayman Islands registered Saad Investments Company Limited (SICL), owner of many of Saad’s equity investments outside the Gulf.
Bank lenders to SICL, owed up to $2.8 billion, are considering making a claim over these assets, Reuters reported last week.
The Cayman Islands’ freeze order, issued on July 24, prevents Maan Al-Sanea and 42 companies associated with Saad from selling assets. These companies include the group’s airline, Saad Air, as well as Singularis Holdings, which bought a 3 percent stake in HSBC in 2007.
Following HSBC’s capital raising, this stake now totals about 2 percent, analysts at Cazenove said in June, with a current value of about 2 billion pounds ($3.31 billion).
Shares bought by Saad also include stakes in Petra Diamonds and Imagination Tech.
Saad Group said in a statement late on Thursday the claims made by AHAB in its application to the Cayman court were without foundation, made before a full investigation had taken place and without full information.
