Saudi Binladin Group

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Saudi Binladin group offices, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) is a construction conglomerate and holding company for the assets owned by the bin Laden family, located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

1 Overview
2 Current activities
3 Website
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Overview

The SBG was founded in 1950 by the family patriarch, Sheikh Mohammed bin Laden, who had the good luck of befriending the country's founder, Abdel Aziz al Saud, a relationship led to important government contracts such as refurbishing the shrines at Mecca and Medina.

After the death of Sheikh Mohammed in 1968, the group was headed by Mohammed Bahareth, brother of Mohammed's first wife and uncle of his oldest children. In 1972, Sheikh Salem bin Laden, the eldest son, took over as his father's successor, with the assistance of several brothers. Upon Salem's death in a plane crash in 1988, the leadership of the group passed to his eldest son, Bakr, the current chairman, along with thirteen other brothers who make up the board of the bin Laden group, the most important of these being Hassan, Yeslam and Yehia. By 2002, the company had 35,000 employees worldwide, and was worth $5 billion.^[1]

[edit] Current activities

The bin Laden group is represented in most Saudi cities – Riyadh, Damman – and in a number of capital cities in the region (Beirut, Cairo, Amman, Dubai). According to a recent synopsis by PBS Frontline:^[2]

in Egypt the SBG is headed by Abdul Aziz bin Laden, and represents that country's largest foreign-owned private equity group, with over 40,000 employees. Currently negotiating a $400 million contract for construction of a paper plant, together with the Shoboskhi Group of Saudi Arabia.

in Lebanon the SBG, represented by Yehia bin Laden, had been (before the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict) holding negotations with the local authorities for a $50 million share in the project to rebuild the Beirut Central District within the framework of the Solidere Project and in conjunction with the al Baraka Group and the bin Mahfouz Group.

Internationally the Group's operations are handled by the Geneva, Switzerland-based Saudi Investment Company (SICO), headed by Yeslam bin Ladin. The group also set up a representative firm in London, Binexport, in November 1990.

On December 20, 2005, the government of Saudi Arabia awarded a consortium of Saudi and Emirati companies, including the Saudi Binladin Group, a $26.6 billion contract to build King Abdullah Economic City.^[3]

[edit] Website

Although it had distanced itself from their relative and former company employee Usama, the Saudi Binladin Group's corporate website, ^[4]^[5] expired on September 11, 2001, the same day as the attacks in the United States.^[6] A new website within the .sa top-level domain appeared later.