Al Amoudi controls a collection of industrial assets in Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia. They include Svenska Petroleum Exploration and Preem, Sweden's biggest oil refiner. He owns Addis Ababa, Ethiopia-based Midroc Gold, the country's biggest miner, as well as hotels, an oil company, and coffee and rice farms.
Bloomberg Billionaires Index
# 262 Mohammed Al Amoudi $8.52B
Al Amoudi's fortune is derived mainly from closely held companies in Sweden, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia. The analysis assumes the billionaire owns all of the assets because no indication of outside partners has been found.
In Sweden he owns Preem, the country's largest oil refiner according to the company's website, oil explorer Svenska Petroleum and construction and property group Midroc Europe. Midroc is valued in three parts: its services units, property unit and its consulting firm, Midroc Invest. The analysis was updated on Oct. 30, 2023 to reflect the latest financial information for Preem and this led to an increase in the calculation of about $2.5 billion.
His Saudi Arabia-based gas-station operator Naft Services is valued using revenue figures calculated based on revenue-per-station of its closest publicly traded peer.
In Ethiopia, he owns two gold assets: Midroc Gold, the country's largest miner according to its website, and the undeveloped Okote Gold Mine. The Okote project is valued using a discounted cash-flow analysis and Midroc Gold is valued using the average enterprise value-to-reserves of peers.
In November 2017, Al Amoudi was detained by Saudi authorities in an anti-corruption crackdown. He was released in January 2019 without any information from the Saudi authorities about the reasons for his arrest or the conditions of his release. His European assets continued to operate on a normal basis and were unaffected by his absence, according to company statements published during his absence.
Biography
Education: Addis Ababa University
Born in 1946, Al Amoudi grew up in Ethiopia. At the age of 19, he moved to Saudi Arabia, taking Saudi citizenship. There, he built a fortune in the construction and real estate industries, benefiting from government contracts. He created conglomerate Midroc in the early 1980s. In 1988, Midroc's construction arm won a contract to build Saudi Arabia's underground oil storage complex, a multi-billion dollar project.
In the mid-1990s, Al Amoudi also began investing in Ethiopia, forming a close relationship with the ruling party, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front. He is now the country's single biggest foreign investor, holding a 98 percent stake in Ethiopia's only large-scale gold mine, as well as businesses operating in agriculture, manufacturing, real estate, steel and construction.
Al Amoudi expanded into oil in the 1990s via his energy-focused holding group, Corral Petroleum. He acquired Swedish energy companies OKP (now Preem Petroleum) and Svenska Petroleum in 1994. Five years later, he assumed control of Morocco's two largest oil refineries and merged them to create Samir.
In Ethiopia, he has invested in coffee, rice-growing projects and land, including a 60-year concession on 10,000 hectares in the province of Gambella. The project has attracted criticism from US-based human rights advocacy group, Oakland Institute, which has characterized it as a "land grab" that has forced the relocation of local residents. The government says resettlement has been voluntary and is unrelated to Al Amoudi's development.
In 2005, Al Amoudi was involved in a defamation case in the UK after a self-proclaimed terrorist expert, Jean Charles Brisard, published articles accusing him of funding terrorism. The parties settled out of court, and Brisard later apologized, saying his information had been false. In July 2011, a UK court awarded Al Amoudi $282,000 in damages in a defamation case against Elias Kifle, publisher of the website Ethiopian Review. In an article, Kifle had also accused Al Amoudi of sponsoring a terrorist organization.
On Nov. 4, 2017, Al Amoudi was one of dozens of high-profile Saudis detained in a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Ethopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appealed to the crown prince for his release. He was finally set free in January 2019. At the time, Saudi authorities offered no explanations for the reasons behind his detention or release.
Milestones
1946 Mohammed Al Amoudi is born in Ethiopia.
1970 Moves to Saudi Arabia at age 19.
1988 Wins contract to build underground oil storage in Saudi Arabia.
1991 Acquires Unity University, Ethiopia's first privately-owned college.
1994 Acquires Sweden's OK Petroleum, renames it Preem.
1999 Assumes control of Morocco's two largest oil refineries.
2011 Announces plan to invest $2.5 billion in Ethiopian rice projects.
2012 National Mining announces new gold discovery at Okote mine.
Source: Bloomberg and Forbes