Saudi billionaires 'lining up bid for Olympic project stake'

[emad]

July 16, 2005

Saudi billionaires 'lining up bid for Olympic project stake'
By Jenny Davey



A CONSORTIUM of Saudi Arabian billionaire businessmen is understood to be lining up a bid for a 50 per cent stake in the £4.5 billion Stratford City project, which will house part of the Olympic Village for the 2012 games, The Times has learnt.

The identity of the bidders for the stake, which is owned by Multiplex, the Australian property group, and the Reuben brothers, the billionaire private investors, is being kept tightly under wraps.

But it is thought that the consortium is being pieced together by a low-profile offshore company called Saifnoor, which manages money on behalf of oil-rich Saudis.

Property sources said that a group of Saudi billionaires is also understood to be in talks to buy part of Multiplex’s 50 per cent stake in Cricklewood, a giant £3 billion shopping, offices and housing project in North London that is being developed in partnership with Hammerson.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1695784,00.html

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