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Mohamed bin Issa Al Jaber

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Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber (* 1959 in Jeddah) is a Saudi Austrian businessman, whose spectacular investment projects -- that were engaged through his group MBI International -- have often filled the newspaper headlines.

Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber lives in Paris, London, Vienna and Jeddah. He is married and has three children.

Personal information

Family

Al Jaber got married to Mrs Makkia Mahmoud Hassan in Jeddah on November 11, 1978. He has two daughters, Mashael (born in 1986) and Bashayer (born in 1990), and a son, Mohsen (born in 1992).[1]

Saudi Citizenship

Some Internet blogs question Al Jaber’s Saudi origins. These believe that he is a Yemenite who immigrated to Saudi Arabia in the 1970’s and was later granted the Saudi nationality upon the request of Prince Abdelaziz Bin Fahd.[2]

Austrian nationality

Al Jaber acquired the Austrian nationality in 2007 after a first refusal.[3]. Michael Häupl, Vienna’s mayor, explained to the Kurier newspaper that it was the city’s Chamber of Commerce who lobbied in his favour [4]. Later, Al Jaber financed 10% of the Vienna Tourism University (Modul University Vienne) construction that was handled by the Chamber of Commerce[3]. The University opened in autumn 2007. In 2008, the Austrian magazine Profile indicated that Al Jaber’s nationality had been obtained upon the decision of the Counsel of Ministers for a series of investments[5]. In response to these allegations, Al Jaber’s spokesman denied any ties between the University construction and the attribution of citizenship. [3]

In September 2009, Al Jaber launched the MHFF - Dr. Michael Häupl Promotion Funds for vocational promotion in tourism. Later in February 2009, Häupl decorated him with a medal of honour.[6]

However, in July 2011, Vienna’s Chamber of Commerce field a complaint against Al Jaber for the non-payment of his agreed financial contributions. [3]

Planes

The Boeing 1967 727-22 with identification number N400RG [7] and the Bombardier 2006 BD-700-1A11 Global 5000 with identification number N171JJ [8], have the MBI & Partners international logo and are registered under American-based trusts funds.

His business background

Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber is presented as a Saudi billionaire and a self-made-man listed in March 2012 by Forbes among the world's weathiest businessmen [9]

Origins of his wealth

Some Internet blogs state that Mohammed Bin Issa Al Jaber comes from a very modest Yemenite family. They indicate that in the 1970’s, he launched a business in the trade of small construction tools in Al Khobar. [2]

Later, he associated with Prince Turki Bin Nasser – husband of Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz’s daughter – for the construction of luxury housings dedicated to foreign military officials in the country. In parallel, he invested in hotel resorts abroad. During that period, he is said to have defrauded numerous banks, and notably the Saudi National Bank. [2]

As he was facing serious conflicts with Prince Turki Bin Nasser, he managed to gain the support and protection of Prince Abdelaziz Bin Fahd, King Fahd’s favourite son, with whom he partnered. This association allowed him to multiply his fortune. [2]

Businesses

Today, Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber is chairman and CEO of MBI International & Partners headquartered in London [10] and that was initially established on the basis of Jadawel International[11].

His MBI International group compromises the following companies: JJW Hotels & Resorts, including luxury hotels in Austria, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom, Amarante 4-star hotels in France, Portugal and Egypt as well as Median 3-star hotels in and Stars budget hotels in France, AJWA Group for Food Industries, an agri-food processing company, Jadawel International, a company developing residential compounds for expatriates in Saudi Arabia, and Continentoil.

MBI International & Partners and its companies are estimated to be worth more than 6 billion euros[12]. In April 2011, Al Jaber announced that he owned 80% of the Group and mentioned a 300 million euros profit for the year 2010[13].

Management

His daughters

His two daughters, Mashael and Bashayer Al Jaber, have always had executive positions in the group’s companies.[14] [15]

Andrea King

According to Internet sources, Andrea King is in charge of MBI International communication. Some websites say that she has huge responsibilities within the group although she never appeared in public.[3]

In Austria, some time before Kneissl went bankrupt, Andrea King replaced Al Jaber’s daughter Mashael as the company’s manager. [3] In March 2011, she became member of the Board of the « Erste Wiener hôtel AG » in Vienna, after three of its members resigned [16].

In June 2011, Andrea King replaced Al Jaber as the Grand Hôtel Wien’s manager. Shortly before, the Bank of Austria had filed a complaint against Al Jaber in Vienna’s commercial Court for the 4,3 million euros of defaulted credits of the Grand Hotel and the Ring hotel. [17]

In France, in 2009, while the press was revealing JJW’s financial troubles, Andreas King became Manager of the hotel groups Amarante [18], Stars [19], Median [20] and JJW Luxury Hotels [21].

During the summer of 2010, along with Al Jaber and his daughter, she took over management responsibilities of the group's UK hotels [22]: THE SCOTSMAN HOTEL [23] [24], THE BABY GRAND HOTEL [25].

Al Jaber’s International business endeavours

Early beginnings within Jadawel

In 1982, he founded Jadawel International Construction & Development.

In 1989, JJW Hotels & Resorts was established in Portugal and is now the owner-operator of more than 60 hotel and leisure resorts in Europe and the Middle East.

In 1992, AJWA Group for Agro and Food Industries commenced operations following the construction at Jeddah Islamic Port of the largest rice storage and processing facility in Saudi Arabia.

In 2003, Al Jaber opened negotiations to purchase J.A. Jones Construction, a Holzmann subsidiary facing financial difficulties. However, the negotiations failed[26].

The same year, an Al Qaeda bombing attack took place at Al Jaber’s Dorrat Al Jadawel Compound in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) which hosted American citizens and other Westerners, including employees of U.S. defence contractors [27]. Al Jaber wrote a letter to the US former Defence Secretary, Collin Powel, declaring his support in America’s war against Saddam Hussein.

Austria

In 2002, Al Jaber appeared for the first time in Austria during his acquisition of the famous Grand Hotel from the Japanese airline company All Nippon Airways. Later, he acquired The Ring hotel (fully furnished) located on Kärntner Ring.


In October 2006, Al Jaber purchased Corso Palais from Generali insurance for almost 70 million euros[28].


In Spring 2008, he offered to take a 20% stake in Austrian Airlines that was facing financial trouble [29]. He withdrew his offer in May 2008 after the company published its negative quarterly results. This was followed by legal proceedings.


Instead, in July 2008, Al Jaber took a 60 % stake in Kneissl Holding GmbH, an Austrian manufacturer of sports equipment. In February 2010 Al Jaber made his oldest daughter Mashael Al Jaber a co-manager of Kneissl Holding.


In February 2009, Al Jaber announced his intention to take over most of Toni Mörwald’s gastronomic companies to whom he offered the position of Chef cuisinier at the Schwarzenberg palace[30]. There is no information to confirm this acquisition. A year after the issuing of the authorizations for the renovating of Hotel Schwarzenberg, site works had not begun[31].


In October 2010, Al Jaber expressed his interest in TUI’s Magic Life Club-Hotels in June 2009 and in the Imperial Hotel AG [32].


In early 2011, following new defaulted payments of Kneissl, a request for the company’s liquidation was filed [33]. Shortly before, Al Jaber had submitted at the Innsbruck’s Court a recovery plan for the ski company and confirmed that he would provide the EUR 1.2-million (USD 1.56 million) in capital injection to pay off the creditors and the employees of the company [34]. However, after months of empty promises, Kneissl company applied for insolvency [35].


In May 2011, the Wirtschaftsblatt newspaper announced for the first time that Petrus Advisers was trying to take over his hotels in Austria in order to consolidate his group’s debts. Al Jaber denied this attempt and declared that the Erste Wiener Hotel was not for sale [36].

Tunisia

Partnership with Libya’s Layco

In March 2006, during a press conference in Tunisia, Al Jaber announced the implementation of the MBI Tunisia Fund. Local media indicated that this USD 65 million fund would serve as a bailout plan for local hotels facing financial difficulties [37].

During the summer of 2007, the Tunisian Ministry of Tourism announced that Al Jaber associated with Libya’s Layco for the acquisition of two luxury hotels in the centre of Tunis [38].


Future projects

More recently, on April 16, 2012, after meeting with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, Al Jaber announced his intention to create a business centre in Tunisia. His group MBI International aims to play a central role in the country’s investments and to re-launch the 2005 hotels construction projects. [39]


Hotels in London

Bankruptcies

In 2007, Al Jaber expanded the JJW Hotels & Resort group acquiring The Eton Collection for GBP 70 million collection [40]. A few years later, in 2010, most of this group’s hotels were filing bankruptcy – except for “42 The Calls Hotel” in Leeds and the Scotsman in Edinburg [41]. The American Group Westmont Hospitality took over, for GBP 55 million, the Academy, the Colonnade and Threadneedles in London, the Quebec hotel in Leeds and the Glasshouse in Edinburg [42]. Marriott International bought out the Brener’s hotel [43] [44].

Litigation in the UK with Sandard Bank

In 2008, Jaber had personally guaranteed three loans contracted by his hotel and food companies from Standard Bank [45]. In 2011, he failed to repay these loans and the bank took the case to court and managed to freeze his assets. Al Jaber declared that this action made him lose USD 1.6 bn [46]. The case was settled after the two parties reached a private and secret agreement in December 2011 [47]

Rumours in Iraq

In may 2008, international media indicated, according to Pentagon sources, that Al Jaber would invest USD 1 billion in Iraq for the construction of touristic sites [48] [49]. MBI declined to comment these rumours [50].

Litigations and defaulted payments in France

Levallois litigation

In July 2008 Al Jaber announced to invest more than one billion Euros in the Tours de Levallois project [51].

The city of Levallois has therefore lent Euro 418 million to the joint company SEMARELP that was in charge of the project management. However, because of Al Jaber defaulted payments (Euro 91 million), the township filed legal proceeding against him and made him loose the rights to build. [52] [53] [54]

Litigation with Starwook Capital Group

In October 2008, Al Jaber announced his intention to acquire, for USD 2 billion, 12 hotels in France from the Starwood Capital Group including the Crillon.[55]

However, in 2010, bound by an exclusivity clause, the two parties still had not reached an agreement on the necessary financial guarantees to be paid by Al Jaber. [56] [57] [58] [59] [60] [61]. A few months later, Starwood filed legal proceeding against him for defaulted payments [62] and managed to break the exclusivity clause signed with Al Jaber [63].


JJW France’s financial difficulties

In 2008, French media revealed the financial difficulties and the important level of debt (Euro 7 billion) of Al Jaber’s French hotels and resorts company, JJW France. The company’s employees that had not been paid for several months – along with the suppliers - decided to take the case to court. In response to their intiative, Al Jaber, promised to inject capital in the company but failed to do so. In 2010, JJW’s debts increased by Euro 2 million reaching Euro 9 million [64]. In 2011, JJW France announced its intention to sell two of its hotels groups, Stars Hotels and Median hotels, but has yet failed to do so [65]

However, as government institutions initiated legal procedures against JJW for the non-payment of various amounts (taxes, social fees, etc), Al Jaber finally injected 25 million euros in his company. [66]

Litigation with AAREAL BAnk

In April 2012, unable to pay its creditors, the company demanded from the Paris Court of Commerce to initiate a safeguard procedure. Unsurprisingly, this initiative intervened at a time where the company has reached, on April 19, 2012, the deadline for the refunding of its 95.66 million loan contracted from the AAREAL bank. The latter demanded that JJW goes under a bankruptcy procedure. This case is still in process. [67]


Al Jaber sentenced to imprisonment in Egypt

In end of 2011, legal proceedings were filed against Al Jaber: as Chairman of the Board of Directors of AJAWA group for Food Industries, the latter was accused of documents forgery and manipulation of stock prices. [68]

The Cairo court of Commerce sentenced him on December 2011, to the payment of 2 million Egyptian pounds and to 2 years in prison for forgery and manipulation of stock prices [69].

Human Rights Watch

In April and May 2010 Mohammed Bin Issa Al Jaber and his company Jadawel International identified by the Human Rights Watch as abusing basic rights of workers by not paying salary and benefit payments and for holding them against their will. [70] [71] [72] [73] [74] The United Nations also accuses Al Jaber of violating workers human rights. Jorge Bustemante, United Nations, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants [75] [76].

Philanthropy

Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber is founder, sole patron and Chairman of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation, which provides scholarships to graduate students from the Middle East and sponsors educational and cultural projects that promote better understanding between the peoples of the Middle East and the wider world. Through the MBI Foundation he helped to start Olive Tree, a scholarship programme that enables Israeli and Palestinian students to study together. He has also backed female education in Saudi Arabia and is a Unesco special envoy.[77] MBI Al Jaber founded the MBI Trust in London and subsequently endowed the MBI Al Jaber Chair in Middle Eastern Studies at the London University School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). He was founding patron in 2000 of the London Middle East Institute at SOAS, directed by the MBI Al Jaber Chair. In 2009 The MBI Al Jaber Building, which won a RIBA award for architectural excellence, was inaugurated at Corpus Christi College Oxford. In 2007, the MBI Al Jaber Foundation made a £1m gift in support of the UCL Institute for Cultural Heritage.

Awards

Al Jaber holds an Honorary Fellowship from Corpus Christi College, Oxford (2009), a Doctor of Science honorary degree from City University London (2004) and Doctor of Letters honorary degree from University of Westminster (2004), an Honorary Fellowship of London University at the School of Oriental and African Studies (2002), the ALESCO Gold Medal for his support of UNESCO projects aimed at promoting education, culture and scientific activities in the Arab World and a Gold Medal of honour for special achievements in the economic and cross-cultural educational sectors of Vienna presented by the Mayor of Vienna.

References

  1. ^ Founding statutes of the MBI company on March 25, 2004
  2. ^ a b c d http://blogs.mubasher.info/المدونات/الزوار/عن-قضية-اجواء-وحقيقة-الفساد-وعن-محمد-بن-عيسي-الجابر
  3. ^ a b c d e f http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Bin_Issa_Al_Jaber#cite_note-mbiajstabue-71
  4. ^ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zqZL-Slwg1kJ:www.hotelvergleich.org/article/Mohamed_Bin_Issa_Al_Jaber+2007+bekam+Al+Jaber+die+österreichische+Staatsbürgerschaft+verliehen.+Waren+damit+Auflagen+wie+Investitionen+verknüpft%3F+Nicht,+dass+ich+wüsste+...+nein,+sicher+nicht.&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=safari%20
  5. ^ http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20080517_OTS0011/profil-erste-einbuergerung-von-mohamed-al-jaber-scheiterte-2004%20
  6. ^ http://www.mbialjaber.com/mbi-news-and-press/praesentation-des-dr-michael-haeupl-–-foerderungsfonds-im-wiener-rathaus%20
  7. ^ http://de.flightaware.com/resources/registration/N400RG%20 N400RG
  8. ^ http://de.flightaware.com/resources/registration/N400RG%20 N171JJ
  9. ^ http://www.forbes.com/profile/mohamed-bin-issa-al-jaber/%20 Forbes Magazine
  10. ^ http://www.mbiinternational.com/%20 headquartered in London
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  14. ^ http://www.onesource.com/free/Search/People?q=Mashael%2BAl%2BJaber%20
  15. ^ http://www.onesource.com/free/Search/People?q=Bashayer%2BAl%2BJaber%20
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  20. ^ http://www.societe.com/societe/median-384636643.html%20
  21. ^ http://www.societe.com/societe/jjw-luxury-hotels-432182863.html%20
  22. ^ http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/the-scotsman-hotel-group%20
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  24. ^ http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/the-scotsman-hotel-group%20
  25. ^ http://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/the-baby-grand-hotel-company%20
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  34. ^ “Al Jaber says yes to capital injection”, APA - Austria Presse Agentur, January 13, 2011
  35. ^ http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1617847.php/Austrian-firm-that-pioneered-carving-skis-is-bankrupt
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  39. ^ http://www.investir-en-tunisie.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14320
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  41. ^ http://hfcgllc.wordpress.com/category/bankrupt/page/8/
  42. ^ http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/15/12/2010/336395/Eton-Group-bought-out-of-administration.htm%20
  43. ^ http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/31/08/2010/334880/Berners-hotel-in-London-for-sale-for-16360m.htm]
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  46. ^ http://m.arabianbusiness.com/uk-dispute-cost-me-1-6bn-says-saudi-s-al-jaber-427588.html
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  49. ^ http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20080505/green_zone_ap_080505/%20
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  51. ^ http://www.mbiinternational.com/mbi-news/mbi-international-invests-over-1-billion-euros-in-two-towers-in-paris
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  55. ^ Karam, Souhail (26 October 2008). "Saudi group in $2 billion hotel deal with Starwood: paper". Reuters.
  56. ^ “La vente de l’hôtel Le Crillon tourne à la bataille jusdiciaire”, Le monde, August 8, 2009
  57. ^ http://www.starwoodcapital.com/UploadedImages/JJW_Litigation.pdf
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  63. ^ « Différend avec JJW : Starwood Capital perd les dommages et intérêts en appel », AFP – 14/02/2011
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  76. ^ http://unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4ea661e628.html dated 8 June 2011
  77. ^ Verjee, Neelam (December 24, 2005). "Sheikh Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber". London: The Times. Retrieved 2010-12-31.

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