Saudi Binladin Group bags massive $3.73bn deal

The Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) has been awarded a $3.73bn (SAR14bn) contract to design and build 30 parcels of land within Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD), according to a report.

ConstructionWeekonline reported that the award was made on Wednesday by Rayadah Investment Co - the government investment arm in charge of developing the $10 billion project.

Rayadah’s KAFD project manager Waleed Aleisa said that the fast-tracked contract requires SBG to complete 27 of the 30 parcels by March 2012 and the remaining three parcels by November 2012, according to the website.

“It’s an enormous challenge and Binladin might be the only contractor in Saudi Arabia capable of producing 30 parcels in 38 months,” he told Construction Week.

“We didn’t want to hire more than one contractor for the job because we wanted to reduce the complexity of the logistics and basically Binladin is the most qualified.”

The contract includes construction of two of the tallest towers in KAFD – the 303m World Trade Centre and the 240m GCC Bank Tower – which will be among the last three parcels to be delivered, the ConstructionWeekonline added.

When complete, the KAFD intends to be by far the largest financial centre in the Middle East. It will be the spearhead of Saudi Arabia's strategy to promote private sector development in order to diversify its oil-rich economy and increase employment opportunities for its young and fast growing population.

The King Abdullah Financial District will be the headquarters for the Capital Market Authority (CMA), the Stock Exchange (Tadawul) and the Commodity Market, and for financial institutions and other service providers such as accountants, auditors, lawyers, analysts, rating agencies, consultants, and IT providers.

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