Esam Janahi - AlQabas Analysis of His Career

 

Sunday's AlQabas has a long article dissecting the career of Mr. Janahi since 1999 (the year he burst on to the GCC financial scene) under the headline "From Sparrow to Peacock Back to Sparrow". 

As you might surmise, this is not the usual puff piece about a visionary leader and financier.  

Rather it postulates that Mr. Janahi's success was due more to skillful media relations, including expenditures, than substance.  It also claims that substance was rather short: that after announcing grand projects Mr. Janahi did not see them through to completion but jumped  to announce new billion dollar projects.  Потёмкинские дере́вни if you will.

There is also additional commentary by the lawyer of Mr. Khalid Bin Ahmad AlSuwaidi about the lawsuit he brought against Mr. Janahi.  Obviously, Mr. AlSuwaidi's lawyer is not neutral in this matter.  The new data offered here are Mr. AlSuwaidi's allegations (note that word)  that Qatar Energy City was his idea, that he and Mr. Janahi were supposed to be equal partners in it, and that Mr. Janahi set up a company in Bahrain which he controlled (registered in the name of his brother Rashid) and then illegally transfered assets in the original company (founded by both parties) and thus took control of the project.

The publication of this article seems to mark the official "fall from grace" of Mr. Janahi as this sort of article has not appeared before.