Kingdom’s coffers swell after IPO
RIYADH: A share offering by Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding has attracted US$$2.3 billion despite attempts by Muslim clerics to discourage investors from the taking part in the IPO.
More than 1.25 million Saudis applied to buy shares in Kingdom’s initial public offering of a five per cent stake. The IPO valued the company overall at US$17.2 billion.
Some clerics had issued edicts discouraging investors from buying shares in Kingdom, saying the company’s investments in hotels and banks violated Islam’s ban on usury and alcohol.
Prince Al Waleed’s stake in Kingdom, which had US$24 billion in assets at the end of 2006, will fall to 93.5 per cent after the sale.
Al Waleed, a nephew of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, has made billions of dollars by investing in underperforming companies and is the world’s 13th-richest person.
Kingdom Holding’s portfolio also includes shares of Time Warner, Apple Computer, Motorola and News Corp as well as Savola Group, the Gulf’s largest food company by market value.
Kingdom Hotel Investments (KHI) recently made its first foray into Cambodia, snapping up Raffles Hotel Le Royal in the capital Phnom Penh, and the Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor in Siem Reap, for a total of US$35m.
KHI also paid US$58 million for a 100 percent stake in the 387-room Traders Hotel in Kunshan – the company’s first acquisition in China.
The move into China follows KHI’s US$124.3 million purchase of Langkawi’s luxury Four Seasons Hotel from Malaysia Airlines.
KHI has also purchase land for the Raffles Da Nang Resort on China Beach, Vietnam.
Ian Jarrett
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