IslamicFinance.de

AHAB outlines a comprehensive settlement proposal to a group of banks and financial institutions with claims against the company. These asserted by banks, total billions of dollars, arise out of liabilities incurred through a massive fraud perpetrated by Maan Al Sanea in his time a head of the Money Exchange division of AHAB. The liabilities have so far spawned more than 70 lawsuits in at least 10 countries over the past five years.

A group of Saudi Arabian lenders has rejected an invitation from Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Co. to attend a meeting next month to discuss their claims on $5.9 billion of debt. The banks have no interest in attending the meeting proposed, according to a letter to Algosaibi from a law firm representing the unnamed Saudi lenders. The letter, dated April 3, didn’t give a reason why the banks don’t want to attend. Algosaibi and billionaire Maan al-Sanea’s Saad Group missed payments on at least $15.7 billion of debt in 2009 in the Middle East’s biggest default, as the global financial crisis froze credit markets and asset prices slumped. The two family holding companies, which are related by marital ties, have been locked in legal disputes ever since.

Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers plans to make a new offer on US$7.2 billion of debt to creditors as it seeks to bounce back from the Middle East's biggest corporate default. The Saudi Arabian company, which runs a bottling plant for PepsiCo Inc. (PEP) products in the kingdom and has interests ranging from finance to shipping, will propose the new deal in the coming months, according to its Chief Executive Officer Simon Charlton. Creditors rejected a proposal from Algosaibi four years ago. The new debt proposal will include some upfront payments and those spread over a longer time. However, terms of the revised deal are likely to be less favorable than the initial offer. Charlton said Algosaibi plans to borrow from local and international banks once the restructuring is resolved.