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Saudi Arabia Report
Marcopolis presents the Saudi Arabia Report focused on the investments, doing business, economy and other topics featuring interviews with key executives. The sectors under review in this issue are industry, real-estate, ICT, investments, banking sector, telecom sector and many more.
Leaders4.8.2015
Saleh bin Mahfouz
Saleh bin Mahfouz was ranked as Marcopolis' #13 most powerful business person in Saudi Arabia.
Saleh Salem bin Mahfouz is one of the leading corporate figures in Saudi Arabia. Other prominent businessmen in Saudi have voted Saleh has the 15th most powerful and influential entrepreneurs in the country.
Saleh bin Mahfouz is the Chairman of SEDCO Holdings, a leading private wealth management company that conducts its business according to Islamic guidelines. It manages a variety of real estate investments, as well as other businesses in Saudi Arabia and globally.
In addition to being Chairman of SEDCO Holdings, Saleh is also Chairman of SEDCO Development, Nahdi Medical Company, Ewaan Global Residential Company, Al Mahmal Real Estate Development Company, Al Mahmal Trading Company, Al-Balad Al Ameen for Development and urban Recreation, and Red Sea Markets Company.
Furthermore, Saleh serves on the boards of a couple different companies, including Alnumu Real Estate, Eimar Arabia, ELAF Hotels, Aljazira Equipment, and Yanbu Cement.
Saleh graduated from the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, earning his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering.
The bin Mahfouz family has an estimated net worth of 2.6 billion dollars, making Saleh one of the wealthiest businessmen in Saudi Arabia, the Arab world, and globally.
Bin Mahfouz Family
Bin Mahfouz family is one of the most respected and wealthiest families in Saudi Arabia. The family is part of merchant group that from a limited resource base, succeeded in establishing good links with King Abdulaziz or King Saud during the 1940s and 1950s, and were able to obtain key agencies and con- struction contracts through these contacts and their inherent skills. Many were important in the fields of banking and construction. Among them were the Abu Nayyans, al-Esayis, Bin Ladens, Bin Mahfouz’s, El Khereijis, Juffalis, Kakis, Rajabs and Silsilahs.
The origin of the family goes back to Salem Bin Mahfouz, the patriach, who was born in 1906 in the mountainous Hadhramout region of Yemen. When Salem was six years old, he was sent to the Hejaz region with his brothers to fend for themselves.
He forsaw the business opportunity in increased trade. With Abdulaziz Al-Ka'ki as his partner, Salem acted as moneychanger for King Abdul Aziz's agents, using Maria Theresa dollars to buy supplies for the army. By 1937, he had become co-owner of the business and its success was evidenced by its capital increasing by 20 times until the partnership was wound up in 1948.
In 1951, Salem and his partners founded a new 50:50 company -The Saleh and Abdulaziz Al-Ka'ki & Salem Bin Mahfouz Company. Since the business was primarily engaged in foreign exchange and banking transactions, Salem met with Sheikh Abdullahh Sulayman, the finance minister of King Abdul Aziz, and proposed turning the company into a bank. He argued forcibly that the Saudi economy was being run by foreign banks: surely it was time for the Kingdom to have its own bank. The idea was enthusiastically received and after a meeting with the King, the National Commercial Bank ("NCB") - www.alahli.com.sa - was established in 1953 with a capital of 40,000 Riyals.
Over the ensuing years, Salem's sons joined the growing stable of family businesses. When Salem died in 1994, his estate was divided between Khalid Bin Mahfouz who inherited his father's holding in NCB, his other four sons, Mohammed, Abdulelah, Saleh and Ahmed - who consolidated their inheritance into a holding company called SEDCO (Saudi Economic and Development Company) - and his widow and seven daughters.
In 1997, Khalid Bin Mahfouz sold a 20.7% stake in NCB to a group of private investors in order to facilitate the transition of the bank on 1st July that year from an unlimited liability private partnership to a joint stock company. In 1999, a further 50% of the family's holding was sold to the Saudi Public Ownership Fund and in late 2002, the family sold its remaining stake to the same fund (see Arab News and MEED).
The two sons of Khalid Bin Mahfouz, Abdulrahman and Sultan, own and operate a number of their own businesses, which include the Al-Murjan Trading Company.
Khalid Bin Mahfouz died on 16 August 2009.
source: http://www.binmahfouz.info/history.html
