sle,Well, yes it is clearly relevant. From this Bloomberg...

sle,

Well, yes it is clearly relevant. From this Bloomberg article:-

Saudi Arabia’s central bank ordered the country’s banks to freeze the accounts of Maan al-Sanea, the Saudi billionaire who owns a stake in HSBC Holdings Plc, people familiar with the instructions said.

Al-Sanea, who is chairman of the Khobar-based Saad Group, also manages The International Banking Corp. B.S.C., the Bahrain-based unit of Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Brothers Co. that has defaulted on some of its debt, according to an Algosaibi official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Saad Group said al-Sanea does not manage the unit.....

Saad Group was formed in the 1980s and was the first family conglomerate to be rated by Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s in Saudi Arabia, according to its Web site. Saad Investments Co. Ltd. is the investment and finance arm of the group, which holds listed debt and equity issues, funds and real estate, operating from offices in Bahrain and Geneva. The group also invests through Awal Bank, its Bahrain-based wholesale bank....

Al-Sanea’s Saad Investment Co. received a $2.82 billion loan from a group of 26 European, U.S., Asian and Arab banks in September 2007 as the global credit crisis damped demand for debt. Earlier that year, Saad Trading Contracting & Financial Services Co., part of al-Sanea’s Saad Group of companies, said it would borrow $5 billion as part of a 20-year plan to diversify investments inside and outside the kingdom.

The Middle East Economic Digest reported on May 23 that Algosaibi had defaulted on $1 billion of foreign exchange transactions, trade finance loans and swap agreements. The magazine cited unidentified bankers.

The default by TIBC, Algosaibi’s Bahrain-based unit, was a “conscious decision not to honor debt payments,” even though the bank’s $400 million equity portfolio means it had enough money to do so, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said May 12....

S&P revised its outlook on Saad Group and related entities on May 22 to negative from stable because of its increased real- estate exposure resulting in less liquidity and a more limited geographic diversity of its holdings. S&P affirmed the company’s “BBB+/A-2” corporate credit ratings.

“The ratings are constrained by the high concentration of securities holdings in the global financial services sector, the volatility of Saad Group’s portfolio, the active use of debt to expand Saad Group’s asset base, and the relatively low liquidity of real-estate holdings, which represent an increasing portion of Saad Group’s portfolio,” S&P said in the report.

So, the Saad Investment Co. has $2.82bn of loans from Europeans banks, which it used to help fund its listed investments, S&P has just downgraded the entire group to junk, parts of the group are defaulting on loans, the Saudi central bank is freezing the assets of the group's founder and chairman...

If you look at that and say, "Well, it might not have any effect. It's just a flesh wound," then it looks like a case of rose-coloured glasses to me.

Clearly relevant.