Saudi Prince Al-Walid Bin Talal has purchased a 49 percent stake in the satellite broadcasting arm of the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) for $98 million.
Prince Al-Walid acquired the shares from Arab Radio and Television (ART) Chairman, Saudi Sheikh Saleh Kamel. The prince told reports at the signing ceremony that he considers LBC SAT to be the leading television station in the Middle East.
LBC was launched over the airwaves of Lebanon in 1985. Ten years later the corporation launched a free satellite channel LBC SAT and now broadcasts LBC Europe, LBC America, and LBC Australia channels. Today, LBC Europe is broadcasting 16 hours a day while the two other channels broadcast around the clock.
Ranked fifth on the Forbes billionaires’ list, the Al-Walid holds six percent of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, 17.3 percent of Disney Land Paris, a stake in Time Warner and shares in the Walt Disney Company. Last year, he announced the establishment of a new Middle East hotel investment firm. The Kingdom Hotel Investment Group (KHIG) has a paid-up capital of $211 million and an authorized capital of $400 million. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
