ALBAWABA – Kingdom Holding Co. bought Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s $450 million stake in Citigroup Inc., according to a Saudi stock market filing on Wednesday, reported by Bloomberg.
Kingdom Holdings’ stake in the Wall Street firm are up to 2.2 percent, after acquiring Alwaleed’s shares, from 1.63 percent, according to Bloomberg.
Notably, Alwaleed is one of the highest profile Saudi investors, having acquired stakes in Citigroup and Apple. He was also a supporter of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s modernization efforts and reforms.
His relationship with Citigroup dates back to 1991, when he invested $590 million and became the bank’s largest shareholder at the time.
Saudi Arabian royal and founder of Kingdom Holding Co. prince AlWaleed bin Talal looks on during a meeting with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake in Colombo on July 4, 2017. (Photo by ISHARA S. KODIKARA / AFP)
The Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, bought a $1.5 billion stake in Kingdom Holding back in 2022. Alwaleed has a 78.1% holding in the investment firm, with the remaining 5% of the stock listed on the Saudi bourse.
Kingdom Holding also owns shares in Twitter Inc., and Alwaleed backed Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company.
Alwaleed was imprisoned in 2017, along with hundreds of other businessmen and officials as part of the crown prince’s anti-corruption drive. Though no formal charges were ever presented. Neither he nor the government disclosed details of the agreement, which Alwaleed described as a “confirmed understanding”, according to Bloomberg. But he was released after 83 days in Riyadh’s Ritz Carlton hotel.
