Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi (Ge'ez: ሞሓመድ አልአሙዲ, Arabic: محمد حسين العمودي; is a Saudi Arabian/Ethiopian businessman and billionaire who lives in Ethiopia and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As of 2011, his net worth has been estimated by Forbes at $12.3 billion, making him the 63rd richest person in the world. This listing also ranks him as the richest person in Ethiopia and the second richest Saudi Arabian citizen in the world.[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 Ethiopia. There is an authorised personal website[2] that provides basic information on his business interests, involvements in Sweden and Ethiopia and approach to international development as well as his philanthropic activities.
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Al Amoudi was born in Ethiopia of a Hadhrami Yemeni father and an Ethiopian mother. He grew up in Ethiopia, before immigrating to Saudi Arabia when he was 19[3] and becoming a Saudi citizen.
Al Amoudi's construction company consortium, Mohammed International Development Research and Organization Companies, also known as MIDROC, won an important contract to build Saudi Arabia's estimated $30 billion nationwide underground oil storage complex in 1988. MIDROC acquired Yanbu Steel in Saudi Arabia in 2000.[4]
In addition to his substantial business interests in Ethiopia (see Commitment to Ethiopia below), he also owns oil refineries in Morocco and Sweden and is engaged in energy exploration and production off West Africa and elsewhere.[5] His Addis Ababa Sheraton is said to be among the finest hotels in Africa.[6]
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, Corral Petroleum Holdings and MIDROC, both which he owns and manages. He employs over 40,000 people through these companies.[7]
He has recently pledged US$275 million alongside other Saudi and South Korean investors through MIDROC to finance a factory to build Saudi Arabia's first car, to be called Gazal-1, in a project initiated by King Saud University[8][9]and, in September 2011, it was announced that he planned to invest around US$1.07bn (4bn Saudi Riyals) in two major Saudi industrial projects (phosphate derivatives and sulfur) in Ras Al Khair [Eastern Region] and Jubail Industrial City respectively[10].
Al Amoudi has focused investment on Ethiopia since the mid-1980s. He is committed to Ethiopia, especially to job creation and infrastructure capacity building, and is well known as a philanthropist in his country of birth. He 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 has a commitment to sport in Ethiopia. He has sponsored the CECAFA Cup, Africa's oldest football cup competition, in 2005 and 2006, during which time the tournament was known as the Al Amoudi Senior Challenge Cup.[11] He also supports Ethiopian Premier League Club St. George[12] and covered the medical expenses[13] of one of Ethiopia’s most celebrated footballers, Mengistu Worku,[14] before his death in December 2010. In 2011, he pledged 100 million Ethiopian birr for a stadium and access road in Mek'ele.[15]
The Sheikh has substantial business interests in Ethiopia, largely operated through MIDROC Ethiopia which was created in 1994. MIDROC Ethiopia announced 1.3bn birr of profits in October 2011. At the announcement of the results, Sheikh Mohammed said that MIDROC would continue to support national efforts towards growth and development.[16]
He has major gold mining interests in Ethiopia[17][18] and it is reported that MIDROC Gold Mine (a subsidiary of MIDROC Ethiopia) has paid the Ethiopian Government 100.1 million birr in royalties, the largest contribution of any mining company.[19] Midroc Gold is Ethiopia’s sole gold exporter. Its Legedenbi mine has a yearly average production of around 4,500Kg of gold and silver.[20]
He owns 70% of NOC (National Oil Corporation) which competes with YBF, TAF and five other companies in the national petrol market[21] and is establishing a major steel plant (Tossa) in Amhara. This latter is Ethiopia’s first industrial steel production plant and in intended to meet a major increase in domestic demand, estimated to rise from 1.2 tonnes to 3.1m tonnes per annum over the next three years.[22]
In February 2011, the Sheikh acquired 69% of Ethiopia’s sole tyre manufacturer Addis Tyre[23] and he has a substantial investment in cement production through Durba Midroc which was founded in 2008.[24]His major cement plant near Chancho was backed in part by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.[25][26]In July 2011, it was announced that the Ethiopian Electric Power Company [EEPco] would provide the Derba cement plant with 50MW of electricity.[27]
The Al Amoudi-owned Saudi Star Agricultural Development Plc planned to develop up to 500,000 hectares (1,200,000 acres) of Ethiopian land for sugar, edible oil, and grain production.[28] In March 2011, Saudi Star announced a further investment of $2.5 billion in Ethiopian rice projects.[29] Some 10,000 hectares have been taken up in 60-year leases and the company plans to rent an additional 290,000 hectares.[30] The company had reportedly purchased $80 million in equipment from [Caterpillar Inc].[31]
President Girma Wolde-Giorgis of Ethiopia has stated that “a substantial investment in agricultural development was key to improving the quality of life across Africa” and that Saudi Star’s major investment programme would benefit both Ethiopia and its important trading partner, Saudi Arabia.[32]
The Sheikh has also has substantial interests in coffee. Of the total 2,295 hectares of land acquired by Ethio Agri-CEFT (which he owns) in the Sheka Zone of Ethiopia, it has only covered 1,010 hectares with coffee and shedding trees. The rest are gorges with indigenous forest trees and shrubs left to preserve the ecosystem of the area.[33]In 2011, he donated 10million birr to the proposed Ethiopian National Coffee Museum in Ethiopia’s Kaffa Zone.[34]
In September 2011, in direct response to a national appeal from Prime Minister Meles Zenawi for popular support for the financing of the major Renaissance Dam in North West Ethiopia which will triple the country’s hydro-electric power, the Sheikh pledged a donation of 1.5bn birr (which is around US$88m)[35]and was personally thanked by the Prime Minister.[36]
Sheikh Al-Amoudi is a major philanthropist who has committed significant funds in support of healthcare and sport in Saudi Arabia, the US, Europe and Africa.[37] He has endowed the Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi Center for Breast Cancer Research at King Abdulaziz University[38] which was launched on July 4th, 2010.[39] In addition to the Chair in Breast Cancer, the Sheikh has also funded Chairs at KAU in Biomedical Practice Ethics, Diabetic Foot Research, Viral Hemorrhagic Fever and Water Networks Research.[40]
In 2008, Sheikh Mohammed Al Amoudi funded King Saud University’s Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hussein Al Amoudi Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Research Chair which has established itself as an invaluable resource of knowledge and research for the Saudi petroleum industry.[41] The Sheikh has also fully funded the King Abdullah Institute for Nanotechnology at King Saud University. This will open in November 2011.[42]
Al Amoudi was named as one of the William J. Clinton Foundation Donors, according to information released as part of an obligation placed on former President Clinton when he supported Hillary Clinton's nomination as Secretary of State. Al Amoudi is reported to have donated between US$1,000,001 to US$5,000,000 to the foundation.[43]
The Sheikh's $20m commitment (over a decade) in partnership with the Foundation has been designed specifically to target resources at AIDS.[44] In 2011, he made US$1.6 million available to the organisers of the Sixteenth International Conference on AIDS and STI (Sexually Transmitted infections) in Africa to help prepare the Millennium Hall in Addis Ababa for the event.[45]
On 8th December 2010 the Sheikh initiated a claim in the English High Court against Elias Kifle of the Washington, D.C.-based Ethiopian Review claiming damages for libel. On 29 July 2011 Kifle was ordered to pay substantial damages of £175,000 for publishing false information.[46]
UK Judge Richard Parkes QC, who presided over the matter and who issued the judgment against Kifle, said of the Sheikh in his judgment: "I have no doubt that he is a man with real, substantial and long established connections to this country, where he is well known within the business community. He is plainly a man with an established reputation to protect in this jurisdiction." Judge Parkes stated that “the article is wholly untrue.” The Sheikh welcomed the Judgment.[47]
The Ethiopian Review had also repeated unwarranted material not only related to his family but also to matters previously dealt with in the Al Amoudi v. Brisard case of 2005. M. Brisard had made serious and unwarranted allegations concerning engagement in the funding of terrorism in the wake of 9/11 but had subsequently apologised for the accusation.[48]These false allegations are occasionally repeated on the internet, including in the article published by The Ethiopian Review. However, Judge Parkes found the statements to be untrue and stated that ‘he (the Sheikh) is implacably opposed to terrorism in all its forms”.[49]
In addition to ranking 63rd on the Forbes Billionaire List in 2011, Sheikh Al Amoudi has been ranked among the 100 richest persons by Forbes since 2006.[50] He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from Addis Ababa University and has been honoured with the Order of the Polar Star by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.[51] Al Amoudi was also jointly honoured by the World Bank and State Department for his work in supporting African development.[52] This was the first time that the World Bank had hosted such an event for a private sector investor.
The Sheikh was honoured for his achievements in both the economic and philanthropic areas at the 19th Arab Economic Forum Summit in Beirut in June 2011, with special reference to his commitment to sustainable development[53] and, in 2009, King Abdullah personally awarded a King Saud University gold medal to the Sheikh, alongside other senior Saudi businessmen, in recognition of his and their role as strategic partners in the development of educational and welfare projects.[54]
Within Black American popular culture, the Sheikh has also been pointed out as a self-made man who offers a positive role model for American youth.[55]
Al Amoudi splits his residence between Ethiopia and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He is married to Sofia Saleh Al Amoudi, a Saudi citizen and shareholder of MIDROC Construction.[56] She is also chair of the board of the Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi Center for Breast Cancer Research at King Abdulziz University.[57]