Olayan family
Suliman Olayan, born in 1918 in Unayzah, worked for a forerunner of Saudi Aramco from 1937 to 1947, then left to start his own trucking company, General Contracting, founded with a personal loan secured against his home. By 1950 his fleet had grown to roughly 150 trucks — the first of more than 50 companies Olayan would go on to found or own.
How the fortune was built
In 1954 Olayan founded General Trading Company, securing distribution rights for Western consumer brands, and helped bring commercial insurance to Saudi Arabia. From the early 1960s he built an international investment portfolio, taking long-term minority stakes in Western companies including First Chicago, Occidental Petroleum, and Chase Manhattan. In 1990 the group launched a Saudi Coca-Cola bottling franchise and later formed consumer-goods joint ventures with Colgate-Palmolive and Nabisco.
Where the family invests today
The Olayan Group's international arm, based in Liechtenstein with offices in New York, London, Athens, and Riyadh, manages an estimated $10 billion in globally diversified investments across public equities, private equity, real estate, and fixed income. The family was a long-time major shareholder in Credit Suisse before its 2023 collapse and UBS takeover, and holds real estate including 550 Madison Avenue in New York and the Ritz Hotel in Madrid; current focus spans consumer, healthcare, financial services, energy, and technology.
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