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Bin Laden firm chasing £96bn
03.06.08
Middle East Development, the Dubai company controlled by a half-brother of Osama bin Laden, is looking to raise about $190 billion (£95.9 billion) to build two new cities in Djibouti and Yemen and a bridge linking them.
Tarek Mohammad bin Laden is stumping up $10 billion in seed finance.
"The bin Ladens are originally from Yemen, and this is part of Sheikh Tarek's desire to fight poverty and encourage trade," said Issam Halabi, a Middle East Development executive.
Soaring oil earnings have spurred a construction boom across the Gulf, and the Saudi-based Bin Laden Group has been a major winner.
Muhammad bin Laden, the semi-literate, one-eyed father of Osama and Tarek, emigrated from Yemen to Jeddah in Saudi in the 1920s, building a construction firm worth $150 million on his death in 1967.
The Bin Laden Group has thrived since 2001. It has 35,000 employees and expects to double in size in the coming decade. It is building airports in Egypt and elsewhere, and has vast property holdings.
