Business
Al Amoudi owns a broad portfolio of businesses in oil and gas as well as in construction, real estate development, mining, agriculture, hotels, hospitals, finance, operations and maintenance. Although his investments are far flung and scattered across the globe, most of his business interests are organized under four conglomerate holding and operating companies: Corral Group, MIDROC Europe, MIDROC Ethiopia and ABV Rock Group. His business holdings are privately owned, either in whole or in part; most are not publicly traded. Businesses registered under his name employ over 40,000 people worldwide.
CORRAL Group - is a holding company for oil and gas related business interests based mostly in Sweden, Morroco and Lebanon:
- Corral Petroleum Holdings AB (Sweden)
- Preem Petroleum AB (Sweden)
- Svenska Petroleum Exploration AB (Sweden)
- Corral Finans AB (Sweden)
- Corral Morocco Gas and Oil (Morocco)
- Société Anonyme Marocaine de l'Industrie du Raffinage (Morocco)
- Coral Oil Company (Lebanon)
- Speed Oil Company (Lebanon)
ABV Rock Group - a holding company for construction related businesses (Saudi Arabia, Sweden). The sister companies of ABV Rock are:
- Saudi ABV General Contractors Company
- Innovators Consulting Engineers
- Yanbu Steel Company
- Trans Desert Transport Company
- Metal Service Company
MIDROC Europe - Formed in 1996 through the acquisition of a number of contractors, Midroc Europe operates in the Scandinavian and international contracting markets, focused on the civil construction, industrial and environmental contracting sectors. The Midroc group in Scandinavia is owned by Sheikh Mohammed Al-Amoudi and the Wikström family (allegedly a front for Al Amoudi holdings). The Midroc group in Europe consists of the following companies:
- Midroc Construction
- Midroc Engineering
- Midroc Electro
- Midroc Environment
- Midroc Project Development (MPD)
- Midroc Real Estate
- BAC Corrosion Control
- Metalock
- Alucrom
- GP Ställningar
- Rodoverken
MIDROC Ethiopia Investment Group - is a holding company for over 30 enterprises and business interests in diversified sectors. Managed under parent MIDROC Group is MIDROC Ethiopia Technology Group which has 11 businesses under its management:
- MIDROC Gold Mine PLC
- ELFORA Agro-Industries PLC
- Huda Real Estate PLC
- Kombolcha Steel Products Industries PLC (KOSPI)
- Modern Building Industries PLC (MBI)
- Trust Protection and Personnel Services PLC
- Addis Home Depot PLC
- Trans Nation Airways PLC
- Addis Gas & Plastics Industry PLC
- Wanza Furnishings Industry PLC
- Daylight Applied Technologies PLC
Other businesses under MIDROC Ethiopia include:
- Sheraton Addis
- Midroc Construction Ethiopia
- Moha Soft Drinks S.C.
- National Mining Corp. (Kenticha Tantalum Mine, Lega Dembi Gold Mine)
- National Motor Companies
- Ethio Leather Industries (ELICO) P.L.C.
- Bauer-Midroc
- Sara Lamps
- Ethio Coffee & Tea Plantation & Marketing P.L.C.
- ...
*MIDROC stands for Mohammed International Development Research and Organization Companies
- WorldSpace - hostile take over attempt of Naoh Samara's start-up satellite business
- Al-Tad (for Al-Amoudi and Tadelle Yidnekachew, son of renouned Yidnekachew Tessema) - the first business set up in Ethiopia: a construction company to build Sheraton Addis
Business Network as sketched by a former employee of Al Amoudi who at one time ran a website at:www.workinsaudi.com
According to this source, Al Amoudi started out as a cement dealer. He later became the construction material supplier for the Swedish managed huge Saudi government project - the Saudi Strategic Storage Programme (SSSP-Project). The project was run under the aegis of the Ministry of Defense and Aviation. Al Amoudi is believed to be the front man for Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz who is the minister.
Al Amoudi's Oil and Gas Holdings (extracted from the article: SAUDI ARABIA - The Private Placements, published on 20 October 2003 by APS Review Gas Market Trends):
Corral Petroleum Holdings (CPH) is a Swedish-registered firm owned by Mohamed Hussein Al Amoudi, of a Jeddah-based merchant clan. CPH in the first quarter of 1999 assumed control over the refining and retail businesses in Morocco. This was done through a merger of the country's two refining firms in which CPH had held the majority since May 1997: Socit Anonyme Marocaine de l'Industrie de Raffinage (Samir) and Socit Chrifinne de Petroles (SCP). The smaller refinery, at Sidi Kacem, has a nameplate capacity of 1.5m t/y. Samir's refinery has a capacity of 6.25m t/y.
CPH's local unit, Corral Holdings Morocco (CHM) merged Samir and SCP so that their resources were pooled together to gain economies of scale and help CHM prepare a $700m programme for expansion. This was to include an upgrade of the two refineries, as gasoline and gasoil specifications in Morocco were to be changed by 2003. CHM was to increase their retail networks in a single system. The project was to upgrade and raise Samir's capacity from 6.25m to 8.25m t/y by 2005, with high quality gasoil/diesel to exceed 55% and that of fuel oil to fall below 15% (down from 33%) of production. Foster Wheeler made the FEED and was the PMC.
However, Samir's refinery was badly damaged by floods and fire in late November 2002. MCE Voest of Austria was contracted subsequently to assess the damage in 2003. As a result, the $700m has since been delayed and the suspension of refinery operations has caused Morocco to import products to meet its requirements. CHM holds a 67.33% equity in Samir.
CHM's 1,500 service stations throughout Morocco were also to be improved under a separate project. Having a monopoly on the local refining industry in Morocco, CHM was aiming to meet all the country's mogas and distillate requirements by 2010. CHM has been getting is crude oil needs from Saudi Aramco, Iraq, Iran and the spot market.
CHM's LPG retail network in Morocco has been expanded through a merger agreed in October 1998 with Tayssir Primagaz, Azizgaz, and Elf Intergaz (Elf now is part of Total). The merged entity has 85% of the LPG market and has invested in new plant and equipment for gas bottling centres to meet the growth in local demand. Previously CHM had 10 LPG filling units accounting for 40% of the filling sector but only 5% of the LPG market.
Corral's first move was on March 16, 1994, when it acquired Stockholm-based OK Petroleum AB (OKP) for $738m. In July 1994 OKP bought Sweden's 400 Texaco petrol stations, representing a 7% share of the market. The total deal was worth around $1.2 bn. Since mid-1996, OKP has been renamed Preem Petroleum. (Nimir had initially wanted to buy OKP but decided against it. Then Al Amoudi hired Nimir as a PMC prior to buying OKP. Nimir undertook the negotiation and acquisition of OKP, on behalf of Corral. Later Nimir got a PMC contract from Preem). Preem is the biggest refiner in Scandinavia with a capacity of 300,000 b/d, in two refineries: the 200,000 b/d Scanraff plant, jointly owned with Norsk Hydro, and the 100,000 b/d Preem refinery. A $200m upgrade at the latter refinery was completed in 2002. Preem Petroleum has extensive storage facilities. Preem has E&P concessions in three North Sea fields, in the Baltic and in Angola. In January 1995 it bought Polish oil company Va-Po, which has a storage farm in Poznan and 20 retail outlets. Now Corral owns some 500 retail outlets under the Preem brand name. Corral also owns Svenska Petroleum and Exploration, which produces 15,000-18,000 b/d of crude oil and has annual sales of around $160m.
In mid-1995 Corral teamed up with Dubai-based Gulf Interstate to take a 15% share in oil retailer Fortuna of Lebanon, at a cost of $50m. Corral's share has since been raised to 70% and Gulf Interstate is out. Fortuna has two units: Coral Oil and Speed Oil operating 150 retail outlets in Lebanon. Amoudi has bought from the Saudi firm Al Mawarid Naft Services Co. which has the largest chain of petrol stations in the kingdom. Its stations are concentrated around Jeddah, Riyadh and Al Khobar.
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Private Saudi oil refining and distribution businesses are linked to the Saudi royal family in one way or another. Their acquisitions abroad are seen as a backdoor way for Saudi oil and refined products to penetrate overseas markets where Saudi Aramco has no presence. Al Amoudi’s oil and gas business holdings in the Sweden, Morroco and Lebanon could not be seen disconnected from this reality. It is not clear what portion of his holdings represent his actual private ownership and what portion belongs to others in the tangled webs of complex front and shell holding companies. Other than Al Amoudi’s Corral Petroleum Holdings (CPH), the other main Saudi private operators involved overseas include: i) Nimir Petroleum Co. Ltd (NPC), owned by the Bin Mahfouz family of Jeddah; ii) the Delta Oil Co., based in Jeddah, part of Delta Investment Co. which groups about 50 prominent Saudi businessmen; iii) the Dallah Al Barakah Group, a Jeddah-based Saudi corporate giant controlled by Shaikh Saleh Al Kamel; and iv) the little known Ningharco linked to the Arab Group International (AGI) based in Riyadh and headed by Prince Sultan Ibn Saud Ibn Abdullah Al Saud.
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Svenska Petroleum Exploration AB is a private Swedish oil and gas company engaged in offshore exploration and production of oil and gas in fields worldwide. Currently, it has production activities in Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Norway and the United Kingdom. Svenska’s workforce has a large percentage of geoscience professionals. The organisation is divided functionally into Exploration, Development & Production and Business Support. Management is divided between the operating offices. The company is a subsidiary of Petroswede, a holding company established in 1996. Petroswede is wholly owned by Sheikh Mohammed H. Al-Amoudi, one of the largest private investors in Sweden.
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