The construction giant behind the Mecca skyscraper complex is seeking an advisor to cut costs as well as restructure the debt of the iconic project, sources familiar with the matter said and a document obtained by Reuters exclusively showed.
The move to seek an advisor “is part of efforts to restructure the construction group, after the government took a 35% stake from Bin Laden family members that were swept up in an anti-graft campaign launched by Riyadh in late 2017,” Reuters reports.
The Abraj Al-Bait clocktower in Mecca.
The Abraj Al-Bait is a complex of seven skyscraper towers built to modernize Mecca, the holy city that hosts millions of pilgrims every year. The Mecca Royal Clock Tower is the third-tallest building in the world, and the fifth-tallest freestanding structure in the world. It also has the world’s largest clock face.
Binladin completed the $15 billion government-owned Abraj Al Beit golden clocktower complex in 2011, but has since run into a series of legal and other troubles. The company was suspended in 2015 after the collapse of a crane at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, killing 111 people and injuring 394. Three Bin Laden brothers, senior executives in the family firm, were among more than 200 businessmen, royals and officials detained in November 2017 in an anti-corruption drive ordered by the prince, according to an in-depth Reuters report on the fall of the Bin Ladens.
Binladin has been seeking proposals from advisers “on behalf of the shareholders in the Abraj Al Bait Complex” to review its operational and financial performance and to assess financial restructuring options, it said in a request for proposals in the document seen by Reuters.
