Mohammed Al Amoudi
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Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi (born 1946) is an Ethiopian born Saudi Arabian business magnate.
Al Amoudi was born to an Ethiopian mother and Yemeni father. He immigrated to Saudi Arabia in 1965 and became a Saudi citizen[1].
Al Amoudi made his fortune in construction and real estate before branching out to buy oil refineries in Sweden and Morocco. He is said to be the largest foreign investor in both Sweden and his native Ethiopia. He holds an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from the Addis Ababa University and has been honoured with the Royal Swedish Order of the North Star by King Carl XVI of Sweden.
Al Amoudi owns a broad portfolio of businesses not only in oil but also in mining, agriculture, hotels, hospitals, finance, operations and maintenance. His businesses are largely to be found within two conglomerate holding and operating companies, The CORRAL Group and The MIDROC Group, which he owns and manages. He employs over 40,000 people through these companies.
The CORRAL Group [Corral Petroleum Holdings AB] has an investment portfolio in Europe and the Middle East that includes Preem Petroleum, the largest integrated petroleum company in Sweden, Svenska Petroleum & Exploration [SPE], SAMIR [a petrochemical and refinery company in Morocco], Naft Services Co. [Saudi Arabia] and Fortuna Holdings Co. Lebanon.
The MIDROC Group is mostly made up of industrial companies: engineering, construction and real estate in Europe; steel & pipeline manufacturing, transport and civil and architectural engineering in the Middle East; mining, agriculture, beverages, paper, hospitals and hotels amongst others. One such investment is the Addis Ababa Sheraton Hotel, the most lavish hotel in the country, where former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Bono stayed while on their African tour. British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has stayed at the hotel more recently. Al Amoudi has focused his East African investments on Ethiopia since the mid-1980s. MIDROC Ethiopia was created in 1994. He is strongly committed to Ethiopia, especially job creation and infrastructure capacity building. He is also well known as a philanthropist in his birth country and has built a 140-bed health care facility and supports visual impairment, disabled, children's health and poverty alleviation programmes. In the education arena, he provides overseas scholarships and is a patron of the Ethiopian arts.
Al Amoudi is a frequent visitor to the UK and the US where he has further business interests and was jointly honoured by the World Bank and State Department for his work in supporting African development. This was the first time that the World Bank had hosted such an event for a private sector investor.
