Saudi group faces $720m forex claim

Trowers & Hamlins, the UK and Dubai-based law firm, on Thursday said it had filed a $720m foreign exchange claim against Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi and Brothers (AHAB), a prominent Saudi business that is locked in a bitter multibillion-dollar dispute with a rival company.

The claim was filed with the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (Sama), the kingdom’s central bank, and relates to money AHAB owes The International Banking Corporation (TIBC), a Bahrain-based bank the Saudi company owns.

Trowers & Hamlins, which was appointed TIBC’s administrator after the bank defaulted on some of its bank debt last summer, said the claim formed part of a wider asset realisation programme being implemented on behalf of Bahrain’s central bank and in the interests of TIBC’s creditors.