Saudi justice issues final ruling to settle 12-year debt dispute



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Today, Sunday, Saudi justice issued a final order regarding the restructuring of the Al-Gosaibi group, officially ending one of the Kingdom’s largest and longest-standing debt disputes.

Restructuring chief Simon Charlton told Reuters that the Dammam Commercial Court issued the final approval order for the group’s reorganization so that it could no longer be appealed.

“The company will now take steps to begin delineating the assets and begin monetizing the assets so that it can provide distributions to its approved creditors,” added Charlton.

Charlton said that under the settlement, the group’s creditors are expected to receive about 26 cents for every dollar in debt collection claims amounting to 27.5 billion riyals (approximately $ 7.3 billion).

He said the company will retain its main operating assets and intends to rebuild these businesses and the group after its restructuring, possibly by arranging external financings, adding that the financing plans are still at an initial stage.

Charlton explained that “the Al-Gosaibi group will continue to claim Al-Sanea’s claim to the ownership of the Saad group” and that he still holds him responsible for its crisis.

The group had requested a financial reorganization in 2019 under the Saudi bankruptcy law, introduced the previous year, to increase the kingdom’s attractiveness to investors.

The group’s creditors are local, regional and international banks. For years, a third of the group’s debt has been exchanged between banks and hedge funds.

Settlement assets include cash of over 800 million riyal, a portfolio of traded stocks worth approximately 3.7 billion riyal, and real estate assets in Saudi Arabia.

Creditors have been chasing the Algosaibi and Saad groups, owned by businessman Maan Al-Sanea, since they defaulted on debts totaling around $ 22 billion in 2009.

Al-Gosaibi and Al-Sanea, a cousin of the Al-Gosaibi family, are grappling with a bitter argument over who is responsible for the collapse of the two companies in 2009.

The Algosaibi Group was one of the first companies to seek restructuring under Saudi Arabia’s new bankruptcy law.

Source: “Reuters”



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