Kingdom Holding Company – the largest company in Saudi Arabia,
95% of which is owned by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud.Many American companies, including Apple, Kodak, Procter & Gamble, Time Warner, also hold ownership shares.
KHC is an investment company on the Saudi Stock Exchange, but it also owns assets of companies around the world, for example, Four Seasons, 21st Century Fox, Disney, Twitter, Lyft.
Kingdom Holding consists of the team of experienced investment professionals led by its founder, Prince Al-Waleed, and CEO Talal Ibrahim. The company describes itself as a diversified investment company whose main interests are financial services, real estate, tourism, and the hotel business, media, entertainment, petrochemicals, aviation, and technology.
Kingdom Holding Company Strategy:
- Focusing on the main sectors of growth and value-added.
- Investing in high-performance companies with leading brands.
- Maintaining a long-term investment approach.
- Deriving value from undervalued or ineffective assets.
- Maximum use of unique experience, investment experience, and international network of contacts.
Kingdom Holding Company is an active investor in sub-Saharan Africa via Kingdom Africa Management, a private joint-stock company, and subsidiary located in South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria.
Some business solutions of Kingdom Holding Company:
- In 2005, it acquired a 96% stake of Royal Palm Hotel with a 251 room in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, one of East Africa’s busiest economic centers.
- In 2006, Kingdom Hotels International and Colony Capital entered into the USD 5,5 billion acquisition of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts in conjunction with Raffles Hotels & Resorts in Singapore.
- In 2007, the company acquired a 12% stake of National Air Services Company Limited, a private Saudi airline, for USD 100 million. The ownership share increased to 37% in 2008.
The financial condition of the Kingdom Holding Company after the arrest of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud
On November 4, 2017, Saudi Arabia carried out mass arrests of princes, current and former government officials, and prominent businesspeople. For several months, they were held at the five-star Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh and forced to surrender assets in exchange for their freedom outside the lawsuit.
The founder of Kingdom Holding Company was also taken into custody. After that, KHC shares fell sharply in price, and the prince’s fortune fell by USD 2,1 billion.
Six months after Prince Al-Waleed freed from arrest, he announced the deal with the French music company Deezer of USD 270 million. Deezer’s investment is KHC founder’s first major international deal since his arrest.
Under the terms of the deal, the Prince will receive shares of Deezer in exchange for exclusive audio and video content from the Saudi – controlled media company Rotana Group. In his statement, Prince Al-Waleed said that the deal was one of many excellent investments.
Since his release from custody, the founder of Kingdom Holding Company has made every effort to establish a cordial relationship with Saudi officials. In February 2019, it announced the USD 500,000 investment in local football clubs.
In the future, Kingdom Holding Company is primarily interested in investing in media and technology: their potential partners in the transaction are Netflix or Amazon.
In April 2019, Kingdom Holding announced a profit growth of 19.83% in the first quarter of 2019, amounting to 171,4 million riyals.
KHC attributes the growth in its profits to increased return on investment and lower operating costs.
