Banks said to receive SAR 1.85 bln payments from Saudi Binladin

Construction giant Saudi Binladin Group’s creditors have received SAR 1.85 billion in loan payments pertaining to the Grand Mosque project in Makkah, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.

The lenders have received the payments since the detention of the troubled contractor’s chairman, Bakr bin Laden, as part of a sweeping anti-corruption purge in Saudi Arabia this week.

It was not clear whether the company initiated the payments before Bakr bin Laden’s arrest.

Saudi Binladin has been badly hit by government spending cuts in the wake of low oil prices, in addition to a temporary suspension from new state contracts after a crane accident killed 107 people at the Grand Mosque in 2015.