Saudi Arabia to auction detained tycoon's real estate assets

 Saudi Arabia will auction real estate owned by indebted billionaire Maan al-Sanea and his company starting next month to help repay billions of riyals due to creditors sources familiar with the matter. Sanea, ranked by Forbes in 2007 as one of the world’s 100 richest people, was detained last year for unpaid debts dating back to 2009 when his company, Saad Group, defaulted. His case is separate from the scores of Saudi businessmen and prominent figures who were held on corruption charges last year at Riyadh’s Ritz Carlton hotel, although it touches on similar investor concerns about corporate governance. In what was Saudi Arabia’s longest-running debt dispute, creditors have spent the past nine years pursuing Saad Group, which is based in the Eastern Province, for debt repayment. The first auction - of undeveloped and commercial land plots, a farm, and income- generating residential buildings in Eastern Province’s Khobar and Dammam - will take place in late October.