DUBAI - Investigators have uncovered $6.2 billion of assets belonging to indebted Saudi billionaire Mann al-Sanea in the Cayman Islands, UAE daily the National reported on Sunday, citing a report by accounting firm Grant Thornton.
The asset find will come as good news to the creditors of Sanea's Cayman holding company Saad Investment Co Ltd (SICL), but liabilities mean they are likely to receive only a small part of the $6.2 billion.
Banks are seeking repayment of a loan of up to $2.8 billion taken out in 2007 by Cayman Islands-registered SICL, a unit of Saudi investment firm Saad Group.
Sanea is head of the troubled Saad Group, which is involved in a global legal battle with rival Al-Gosaibi over alleged $10 billion fraud by Sanea.
Grant Thornton has found SICL assets in the form of cash, investments in shares, bonds and other financial instruments and property in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, the newspaper reported.
Liabilities - principally unpaid corporate loans and other bank debt - reduce the net value of Sanea’s Caymans businesses to $2.21 billion, the newspaper reported.
“Material uncertainty exists surrounding the realisable value of most of SICL’s assets. It is therefore extremely difficult for (us) to form a realistic view at this time as to the extent of the assets which will be available to meet the claims of creditors,” the National quoted the Grant Thornton report as saying.
A spokesman for Sanea declined to comment.
The Grant Thornton report represents the most thorough examination yet of Sanea’s businesses outside Saudi Arabia, the National reported.
The report shows a group of companies suffering under the effects of the global financial crisis. Net assets were more than halved in the first eight months of this year.