Saudi Binladin seeks loan extension after Grand Mosque payment delay

Company has been hit by govt spending cuts and by its suspension from receiving new state contracts since Sep 2015


Reuters July 18, 2016
Migrant workers, who work for the Saudi Binladin Group, gather as they ask for a final settlement over a salary issue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, March 29, 2016. PHOTO: REUTERS

DUBAI: Saudi Binladin Group has asked for an extension on a SR817-million ($217.8 million) Islamic loan that matured last week and which was being used to fund construction work on the kingdom's Grand Mosque site, according to sources aware of the matter.

The request to delay the payment, originally due on July 15, was because the Saudi government had yet to reimburse the construction firm for works carried out on Islam's holiest location, the sources said on condition of anonymity due to the subject's sensitivity.

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The company has been hit by government spending cuts and by its suspension from receiving new state contracts since September last year, when a crane accident killed 107 people at Makkah's Grand Mosque.

Binladin declined to comment. Dubai Islamic Bank, which originally helped arrange the Islamic loan, declined to comment.

A spokesperson for the Saudi Ministry of Finance couldn't be reached for comment.

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