Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Valid Bin Talal al-Saud sells his shares to the people

Saudi Prince Al-Valid Bin Talal al-Saud intends to sell 5% of his shares in Kingdom Holding to his people, Bloomberg reports. Kingdom owns 4% Citigroup, 22% Four Seasons Hotels, 3.75% News Corp. Ruperta mayordok, as well as 17.3% of the European branch of Disney.

The cost of the company is estimated at $ 17.6 billion. Promotions will be sold at a price of about $ 2.73 apiece. If they are in demand among the population, the offer can be expanded to 15% of the company.

The 51-year-old Al-Walid, the nephew of the Saudi king Fahd, began to invest after the college in California, in 1979. A year later, he received a loan of $ 300,000 from the Saudi American Bank, and in 1991 he already had an investment capital of $ 207 million.

The prince was considered the richest of the Arabs of the world for a long time. He received the reputation of the financial genius by investing in 1991 the capital in Citicorp, the predecessor of the current Citigroup, when the cost of its shares decreased significantly. Today he is the largest shareholder of this financial company in the world.

According to Forbes magazine, Prince Al-Valid firmly enters the ten richest people of the planet. His personal well -being is estimated at $ 23.7 billion (according to Arabian Business - 28 billion). Every year he donates at least $ 100 million for charity.

But the gifts of the prince were not always accepted in the West. So, in October 2001, the mayor of Rudolf Juliani rejected $ 10 million, donated by the prince to the Fund of the World Trade Center, since the prince said that the United States may have been partially guilty of what happened.

The prince that was not accepted by the Americans then divided equally between Afghan refugees and Palestinians. Today, in addition to hundreds of local and regional companies, al-Valid al-Saud owns varable pieces of CITIGROUP, Apple Computer, Canary WHARF. He owns 17% in Eurodisney, a company that runs Disneyland Paris. In addition, through Kingdom Holding Company, he owns several of the most luxurious Parisian hotels.

Citigroup Inc., whose most noticeable individual co -owner is the prince, is the largest international corporation and one of the leaders in the field of financial services. According to Forbes, the company ranks first in the world in terms of business scale and profit size. Its services are used by about 200 million customers in 100 countries.

Last year, the prince took 8th place in the ranking of the richest people of the planet compiled by Forbes magazine. The condition that he earned on investments in underestimated companies is estimated at about $ 25 billion. Arabian Business magazine is recognized as the man of the year in his country.