Saad Hariri and the Saudi Money Riddle
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/saad-hariri-and-saudi-money-riddle
It is known that Hariri’s problem is not financial as much as it is administrative. His sources insist that “money alone will not help the company overcome its crisis.” What Saudi Oger needs most of all is “a restructuring to face the crisis and regain the confidence it lost in the market,” especially given that “it has now earned a terrible reputation” after once having been one of the leading companies in the Arabian Peninsula.
Hariri is in a “state of shock” after discovering the severe corruption and wastefulness of the people closest to him. This led him to implement a system of accountability, firing and excluding a large number of employees.
Audit firms assessed Saudi Oger’s conditions and Hariri knows that he has to downsize in a major way. This process will affect at least 17,000 employees out of about 70,000. Sources confirm, however, that Saudi nationals are exempt from the lay offs and that Hariri will avoid firing Lebanese nationals out of fear of an electoral blowback.