Saudi Jackpot

Red Blount's $1.7 billion deal

In the big-rig world of heavy construction, no one thinks bigger than a country boy from Alabama named Winton ("Red") Blount. Just after World War II, he was building fishponds in the rural South. Now he is preparing to erect an immense desert campus in Saudi Arabia that will sprawl across an area the size of 109 football fields. In partnership with the French firm Bouygues, Blount Inc., of Montgomery, Ala. (fiscal 1981 sales: $651 million), has captured a coveted $1.7 bil lion contract to build Saudi Arabia's new...

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