Most Middle Eastern billionaires did very well this year amid near record oil prices and the infrastructure boom in the region, but few individuals have made investments that rival Maan al-Sanea’s in scale. A former fighter pilot in Kuwait, Al-Sanea was born in Saudi Arabia, where he began a contracting and construction business in the 1980s.
He married into the Al-Gosaibi family, one of the Kingdom’s wealthiest and most influential business clans, and leveraged this connection to build Saad Group into the country’s fourth largest private company. Headquartered in Al Khobar, the group now has operations throughout Saudi Arabia, as well as offices in Bahrain, Geneva and London, with associated companies in Kuwait, Portugal, France Jersey, the Cayman Islands, the Netherlands Antilles and the US.
Al Sanea’s empire consists of nearly 40 businesses stretching across five continents. The group engages in a variety of investments ranging from sophisticated information technology developments to commercial and leisure ventures such as shopping malls and golf courses.
A firm believer in ‘Saudisation’, the group employs more than 13,000 people and is committed to promoting education opportunities and improving healthcare services in Saudi Arabia. Today, Saad’s single largest capital investment in Saudi Arabia is the Saad Specialist Hospital in Al Khobar. At the present time, the company has operating capital in excess of US$2bn, and a net worth substantially in excess of US$5bn.
Earlier this year, Al Sanea acquired a 3.1% stake in HSBC, the world’s second largest bank, for US$6.6bn, his largest investment to date. If his past performance portends anything, the 52-year-old multibillionaire has lots of profits to post and a few more mega-deals up his sleeve.
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