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ce ¥ my too. POFEIS NES Busines . We & KR ft C@& ry NAMES & FACES ‘ Adnan. Khashoggi ivies another U. S. deal Last month, a Beirut-based Arab en- trepreneur named Adnan M. Kha- shoggi approached the Saudi Arabian government with a grandiose proposal: Sign a commitment to sell a whopping one million barrels a day of crude oil to a group of American refiners for 20 years, and then invest several hundred million dollars to help build the seven or eight new U.S. refineries that would process the crude starting in 1977 for sale to American utilities. The deal, he argued, would guarantee market sta- bility for both sides, would help Saudi Arabia realize its stated goal of in- vesting in the U.S. energy business, and could include American promises to make industrial investments in Saudi Arabia as a sweetener. The scheme might sound like an Ara- bian Nights pipedream, if Khashoggi’s partners in the idea did not include such sober enterprises as Bank of ' America, Merrill Lynch Peirce Fenner & Smith, Inc., and the big British mer- chant bank, Schroders. The plan is only a “concept” so far, its backers say, with few details settled and no refiners signed up yet-—although many U.S. oii compariies woud ui- doubtedly jump at a guaranteed crude supply, as Ashland Oil did last month in signing a similar, smaller deal with Iran’s state-owned oil ‘company. Saudi officials are mulling the plan. If it goes through, it could have signficant im- pact on future U.S. energy needs. Big-think. It would also be a major coup for Adnan Khashoggi, a 38-year-old Saudi who acquired a taste for U.S.- style deal making while a student in California. Khashoggi is a big-think entrepreneur who, virtually unnoticed, is building a personal international. empire in such diverse. businesses. as shipping in Indonesia, furniture manu- facturing in Lebanon, cattle-feeding in © Brazil, retail banking in California— and arms peddling in the Middle Hast. By multinational standards his em- pire is small, with revenues totaling only $20-million last year. But it is growing fast. In January, Khashoggi bought California’s Security National Bank of Walnut Creek (deposits $120- million), after buying a smaller bank in the same town last year. He has am- bitious hopes for the banks, hoping to build them into a $1-billion institution. If he can hit that target, Khashoggi will wind up.with one of the very larg- est foreign-owned banks in the U.S. “I believe we can do it in five years,” he says, through branching, acquisitions, and Arab money. NAMES & FACES Lee Baker Johnson—BW Last year, Khashoggi bought a 50% interest in Jungle Jap, the trendy Paris fashion house run by Japanese designer Kenzo Takada, Earlier this year, he opened the first in a planned chain of California steak houses. And this month, he hopes to buy out Eidal Manufacturing, an Albuquerque maker eel His plan: Sell Saudi crude to America, then build eight refineries in the U. S. a eS of truck trailers used in the Mideast oil business. Currently, Khashoggi is tracking down $150-million in Arab capital to help Apco Oil Corp. of Hous- ton build two new U.S. refineries. The backbone of Khashoggi’s busi- ness—and of his personal fortune esti- mated at $50-million—is providing con- sulting services to U.S. and European arms and aircraft makers who are anx- ious to sell their wares in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi’s connections there are ex- cellent. His father was personal physi- cian to the late King Ibn Saud, his uncle was deouty foreign minister for 26 years, and Khashoggi himself is a close friend of two brothers of the. present king, Faisal. Short, plump, and amiable, Kha- Adnan Khashoggi: He’ s putting together a unique institution—an Arab muitinational. shoggi is both shrewd and charming, » and his reputation for opening doors in. . the Middle East prompted « Paris...” newspaper to claim recently that no French arms maker could sell anything in the area without Khashoggi as its agent—a claim that Khashoggi rejects, - His friendships “make it difficult, not:.. easy” to sell things, he contends..More-:' over, ‘he insists he is not a salesman, but merely provides sales-related Sete. vices. A, Rare bird. However, France’s para.” governmental arms export agency, «': SOFNA, Switzerland’s Oerlikon, Brit-~ & ain's Rolls-Royce, Spain’s Barreos, and; such American firms as Lockheed’ Air craft, Northrop, Raytheon; Littor, Tn- ite dustries, and Teledyne Iné, all count-on -’ ah Khashoggi as their man in Saudi™ Arabia. He has recently helped’ North- '* a rop sell F-5 fighters and Lockheed sell 4 ig C-180 transport planes to the Saudis: ay “He knows how to do business in the a Middle East,” says one official of. Litton i Industries. inte Khashoggi entered the arms ‘busi-’ a ness in 1966 by buying Raytheon’s ary. He ‘then sold Saudi “Arabia $136- *- million worth of Raytheon Hawk this- * siles—an order the Saudis have now tripled. Khashoggi gets a retainer—~°.