Riyadh, Jan 13 (AFP) Saudi construction giant BinladinGroup denied today any state takeover after its chairman wasdetained, but said some shares may have been transferred tothe government.
The firm, which has been forced to lay off tens ofthousands of workers due to financial problems, said itremained a private shareholding company and was undergoingrestructuring.
International media this week reported Saudi Arabia'sgovernment had taken over the firm after chairman Bakr binLaden was detained.
The Saudi Binladin Group "would like to confirm that itremains a private sector company owned by its shareholders",it said in a statement.
But some company shares may have been transferred to thegovernment in a settlement of "outstanding dues", it added,without providing any details on the size of any such shares.
"Based on information available to the management, someof the shareholders may have agreed (to) a settlement thatinvolves transferring some SBG shares to the government ofSaudi Arabia against outstanding dues," it said.
The group's chairman was among dozens of high-profilepolitical and business figures arrested two months ago in acrackdown on corruption ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed binSalman.
Saudi authorities said they were negotiating financialsettlements with those detained that could earn state coffersabout USD 100 billion.
Some of those jailed at the luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel inRiyadh have been released after agreeing to a settlement withthe government.
But the chairman is among several other suspects who arestill in detention. These also include Saudi billionaireprince Al-Waleed bin Talal.
Established in 1931, the Binladin Group is one of themost powerful companies in the oil-rich kingdom.
It belongs to the family of the late Al-Qaeda leaderOsama bin Laden, who was killed in 2011.
The firm has encountered serious difficulties in the pastfew years.
It laid off around 77,000 foreign workers in 2016, afterthe government delayed payments due to a slump in oilrevenues.
It also faced unprecedented scrutiny after one of itscranes working on a major expansion of the Grand Mosque inMecca, Islam's holiest site, collapsed in 2015, killing atleast 107 people.
The firm had been working for years on the multi-billion-dollar project to accommodate the increasing numbers of Muslimpilgrims to the site.
A Saudi court in October cleared the company ofresponsibility for the accident.
Today, the group said that its contracted work with thegovernment would continue, especially at the Grand Mosque inMecca and another mosque in the holy city of Medina.
It also said it had formed a committee to oversee itsrestructuring towards the firm "being profitable again".
Saudi Arabia has posted large budget deficits in the pastfour fiscal years and is projected to remain in the red until2023 due to low oil prices.
The drop in oil revenues also led to the demise of SaudiOger, a once-mighty construction firm linked to Lebanon'sprime minister Saad Hariri. (AFP)CPS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.