Riyadh: Saudi Arabia will auction real estate owned by indebted billionaire Maan Al Sanea and his company starting next month to help repay billions of riyals due to creditors, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Sanea, ranked by Forbes in 2007 as one of the world's 100 richest people, was detained last year for unpaid debts dating back to 2009 when his company, Saad Group, defaulted.
In what was Saudi Arabia's longest-running debt dispute, creditors have spent the past nine years pursuing Saad Group, which is based in the Eastern Province, for debt repayment.
Etqaan Alliance, the consortium appointed late last year by a three-judge tribunal to resolve Saad's debt dispute, will sell the assets over five months at auctions in the Eastern Province, Riyadh and Jeddah, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The first auction - of undeveloped and commercial land plots, a farm, and income-generating residential buildings in Eastern Province's Khobar and Dammam - will take place in late October, the sources added.