SAMA orders freeze on Al Sanea bank accounts - report

FREEZE ORDERED: Saudi Central Bank orders freeze on all bank accounts of Saad Group founder, Maan Al Sanea, according to newspaper report. (Getty Images).

The Saudi Arabian central bank has ordered all bank accounts of Maan Al Sanea, founder of the Saad Group, to be frozen, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

SAMA has ordered all Saudi banks to freeze the accounts of Al Sanea and his family, fuelling fears of liquidity problems at Saad Group, one of the kingdom’s leading conglomerates, Saudi daily Al Watan wrote.

The group has significant interests in Saudi’s real estate and banking sectors.

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) revised its outlook on Saad Group last week to negative from stable due to its growing exposure to real estate, resulting in reduced liquidity and geographic diversity of its portfolio.

The group’s reported real estate holdings roughly doubled in 2008, reaching $8.4bn from $4.3bn in 2007, the ratings agency said.

Maan Al Sanea was listed as the Arab world’s third richest person in the latest Arabian Business ranking of the world’s 50 richest Arabs, with an estimated net worth of $9.3bn.

In 2006 he acquired a 3.1 percent stake in HSBC for $6.6bn, his largest investment to date.

"The Saad Group does not comment on rumours or speculation about its businesses or its individual members," a spokesperson for the group told Arabian Business on Sunday.

A spokesman for SAMA was not immediately available for comment.

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