Al-Jaber Group Eyes Holzmann’s US Unit

FRANKFURT, 29 March 2003 — Mohamed Ibn Isa Al-Jaber, a prominent Saudi businessman, is currently in talks to buy the United States construction firm JA Jones, a unit of bankrupt German building group Philipp Holzmann, Al-Jaber’s spokesman said in a newspaper report published yesterday.

“Negotiations are under way. We’re making good progress,” the spokesman told the Financial Times Deutschland.

Holzmann’s administrator Ottmar Hermann was asking $500 million, much higher than what Al-Jaber was willing to pay, the newspaper said, quoting informed sources. FT Deutschland quoted a spokeswoman for the US Federal Trade Commission in Washington as saying that the deal had already received the nod of approval from the US competition authorities.