Olayan Group: Prominent Global Saudi Trademark
The Olayan Group is a Saudi group of companies founded by Suleiman Al-Olayan in 1947. It started as a road transport company working in the field of building tape lines in Saudi Arabia.
It expanded its activity with the oil boom to include restaurants, the food industry, the paper industry, plastics, insurance, and more. It has several partnerships with international companies, most notably Coca-Cola, Burger King, and Bechtel.
The Olayan Group is diversified in industrial operations in the Middle East, in addition to an actively managed portfolio of international investments.
The commercial side of the group includes more than 40 companies and is concentrated in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where the group originated. The companies are involved in distribution, manufacturing, and services.
Many of these companies work in partnership with major multinational or regional companies. They have some operations in other Gulf countries and the Middle East. With offices in Saudi Arabia, Europe, and the US, the group’s global investment team focuses on public and private equities, real estate, fixed-income securities, and other specialized assets.
Khaled Al-Olayan is the son of Suleiman Al-Olayan, born in July 1945, and his three sisters, Lubna, Al-Hayat, and Hutham Al-Olayan, members of the Olayan Financial Group OFC, an entity holding operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
The Olayan Group traces its origins to the General Contracting Company of the Gulf Cooperation Council. This company was founded to work on the construction of a pipeline across the Arab countries along with the American contracting company Bechtel.
In 1950, Olayan established trading and insurance companies and began investing in the New York and London markets.
Since then, the group has diversified its activities by establishing its subsidiaries and partnerships in many industries.
Currently, the group has activities in construction, trading, food processing, restaurants, cleaning products, paper, plastic, fiber, office equipment, and other industries. The team is also canning and distributing Coca-Cola in Saudi Arabia.
Alpha Graphics International Group, BP Solar, Credit Suisse, Carrefour, HSBC, JPMorgan, Chase Manhattan, Coca-Cola, Bechtel, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Kimberly Clark, Sama Airlines, Colgate-Palmolive, CS First Boston, Toshiba, Xerox, Burger King, Kraft Foods, Baxter International, Occidental Petroleum, Cardinal Health, Scania AB and many more are partners of the Olayan Group.
The Olayan Group invests internationally in both public and private equity, including real estate and fixed-income securities. The group’s multi-billion dollar portfolio is concentrated in North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
The group prides itself on a global perspective in investing in all asset classes and geographies.
