heikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi; born 1946 in Dessie, Ethiopia but grew up in Weldiya) is a Saudi Arabian /Ethiopian business magnate who lives in Ethiopia and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In 2006 his net worth was estimated as between $2.5 and $6.9 billion, causing Arabian Business to rank him as the world's 8th richest Arab, and Forbes to rank him as the world's 43rd richest person.
Al Amoudi's father is Yemeni and his mother is Ethiopian. He immigrated to Saudi Arabia in 1965 and became a Saudi citizen. Depending on disparate ethnic categorizations, and Al Amoudi's mixed Ethiopian and Yemeni parentage, he is considered to be the richest black person in the world and/or one of the richest Arabs.
Al Amoudi made his fortune in construction and real estate before branching out to buy oil refineries in Sweden and Morocco. He is said to be the largest foreign investor in both Sweden and Ethiopia. He holds an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from the Addis Ababa University and has been honoured with the Swedish Royal Order of the Polar Star by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
Business activity
Al Amoudi owns a broad portfolio of businesses not only in oil but also in mining, agriculture, hotels, hospitals, finance, operations and maintenance. Some have said he is gaining monopoly on businesses in Ethiopia, but there seem to be other wealthy Ethiopians to challenge some of his companies. Despite losing bids to Al Amoudi, CEO Girma of Ethiopian Airlines said Al Amoudi's work is a healthy competition, saying "growth and competition, it is good for everybody."
His businesses are largely to be found within two conglomerate holding and operating companies, Corral Petroleum Holdings and MIDROC (Mohammed International Development Research and Organization Companies), which he owns and manages. He employs over 40,000 people through these companies.
Commitment to East Africa
Al Amoudi has focused his East African investments on Ethiopia since the mid-1980s. MIDROC Ethiopia was created in 1994. He is strongly committed to Ethiopia, especially job creation and infrastructure capacity building. He is also well known as a philanthropist in his birth country and has built a 140-bed health care facility and supports visual impairment, disabled, children's health and poverty alleviation programmes. In the education arena, he provides overseas scholarships and is a patron of the Ethiopian arts. Al Amoudi has sponsored the CECAFA Cup, Africa's oldest cup competition for the last three years, during which time the football tournament has been known as the Al Amoudi Senior Challenge Cup.Al Amoudi is a frequent visitor to the UK and the US where he has further business interests and was jointly honoured by the World Bank and State Department for his work in supporting African development. This was the first time that the World Bank had hosted such an event for a private sector investor. Source: Wikipedia
Involvement in Ethiopian Sports
- Individuals
- Helped a number of former Ethiopian soccer players (winners of the 3rd African Cup) and athletes both financially and materially. Al Amoudi covered all the medical expenses (US $35,000) for Ali Redi, the national soccer team goalkeeper who was treated for leukemia at a Cape Town hospital in South Africa.
- Club Level- Sponsorship
- His MOHA Soft Drinks Industry S.C. which produces Pepsi Cola in Ethiopia is the primary sponsor of St. George Football Club.
- National Team Level
- Paid all transportation expenses for the Ethiopian Olympic team, which took part in the 1996 Atlanta Games.
- He brought in French coach Diego Garzitto to prepare the Ethiopian U-20 team for the African Youth Championship (held in Addis Ababa) and the World Youth championship in Argentina. He paid his US $5,500/month salary and also provided him with housing accommodation and transportation vehicle.
- Sponsoring International Soccer Tournament
The CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup has been renamed Al Amoudi Senior Challenge Cup, after Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi, who agreed to sponsor the tournament for the next three years. The sponsorship deal is worth US $1.5 million (US $500,000/year) and will cover the transportation and hotel expenses for the participating teams plus the prize money given to the top four finishers. - Prize Money
The new sponsorship deal calls for US$70,000 price money to be distributed among the top four finishers. This same format will be applied for the next two editions of the tournament.- US$30,000 for the winning team
- US$20,000 for the runner-up
- US$15,000 for the third place finisher
- US$5,000 for the fourth placed team
- Stadium Construction & Building
- He is expected to build a stadium for St. George F.C. which will hold 60,000 spectators and is estimated to cost between US $6-7 million.
- Construction of Athletic Village at Sendafa
A one-day national fund-raising was held at Sheraton Addis to raise funds for the construction of an athletic village for the Ethiopian national team at Sendafa, on the outskirts of the capital. Of the 30 million birr (around US $3.4 million) that was raised through donation and auction on that day, 23 million Birr (US $2.7 million) came from Al Amoudi' companies. Source: Ethiosport.com
Articles on Sheikh Mohammed Al Amoudi
- Forbes Magazine- #43 Mohammed Al Amoudi- The Sydney Morning Herald- 43rd richest man behind Tasmanian A-League bid
**#64 Mohammed Al Amoudi 2010
Born in Ethiopia to Saudi father and Ethiopian mother, Al-Amoudi claims to be investing more than $3 billion into Ethiopian agriculture and industry with the aim of modernizing farming and eventually exporting much of the output to Saudi Arabia. Also owns mine in Ethiopia that puts out 5 tons of gold a year. Started investing in Sweden in 1974; stakes there now comprise half his fortune: Preem operates two refineries; Svenska Petroleum produces crude oil in the North Sea and west Africa. Construction company Midroc operates in Europe, Africa and Middle East. In recent years completed estimated $30 billion contract with Saudi Arabia to build vast underground oil storage caverns.
Forbes Magazine
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