Beleaguered Saudi construction firm Binladin Group has requested an extension on a $217.8 million Islamic loan, Reuters reports.
The loan, which matured last week, was to finance works on Saudi Arabia's Grand Mosque, the site of a deadly crane accident last September. The Saudi government suspended contracts in the wake of a criminal investigation into the circumstances of the deaths of 107 people crushed by a crane owned by the company. An announcement into the trial of Binladin engineers is expected shortly.
The Binladin Group has been beset by financial and legal difficulties due to the crane accident, government cuts and a fall in oil prices, which resulted in over 70,000 layoffs and divestment of assets in order to repay delayed salaries.
The ban on new contracts was lifted in May but the company is still an estimated $30 billion in debt while contining work on the mosque renovations, Reuters reports.
The request for extension on the loan payment, originally due on July 15, is due to a delay in reimbursements for work carried out on Islam’s holiest location, according to anonymous source.
Binladin declined to comment. Dubai Islamic Bank, which originally helped arrange the Islamic loan, declined to comment. A spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Finance couldn’t be reached for comment.
