Saudi Prince,Al-Waleed bin Talal

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal,  الوليد بن طلال بن عبد العزيز آل سعود‎; born 7 March 1955) is a member of the Saudi Royal Family. He is the nephew of the Saudi Arabian King Abdullah. An entrepreneur and international investor but without real political power within the House of Saud or in Saudi Arabia, he has amassed a fortune through investments in real estate and the stock market.

As of March 2010, his net worth is estimated at US$19.4 billion, up from $13.3 billion, according to Forbes, making him the 19th richest person in the world on their list published in March 2010. He has been nicknamed by Time magazine as the Arabian Warren Buffett.

Early life

Al-Waleed bin Talal was born to Talal ibn Abd al-Aziz, son of the founding King of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz Al Saud, and Princess Mona El-Solh, Daughter of Riad as-Solh Lebanon's first Prime Minister. He is Prince Talal's second son.

Al-Waleed completed a bachelor of science degree in business administration at Menlo College in 1979 and masters in social science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University, in 1985. He was also awarded an honorary PhD from the University of Exeter. Prince Waleed's children are: Prince Khaled and Princess Reem who are from his first wife, Princess Dalal bint Saud bin Abdul Aziz. And Prince Najem and Princess Mona who are from Princess Deborah of Saudi Arabia, whom is one of Waleed bin Talal's current wives. Despite being the nephew of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, he has stayed outside of the core of political power in Saudi Arabia because his mother is non-saudi national, and instead built a large international corporation called the Kingdom Holding Company, through which he makes his investments.

Business interests

Al-Waleed began his business career in 1979 upon graduation from Menlo College. The Prince's activities as an investor came to prominence when he bought a substantial tranche of shares in Citicorp in the 1990s when that firm was in difficulties. With an initial investment of $550 million ($2.98 a share after adjusting for stock splits, acquisitions and spin-offs, according to Bloomberg calculations) to bail out Citibank caused by underperforming American real estate loans and Latin American businesses, his holdings in Citigroup now comprise for about $1 billion. His investments in Citibank earned him the title of Saudi Warren Buffett.

His stake in Citibank once accounted for approximately half of his wealth, prior to the recent financial crisis. At the end of 1990 he bought 4.9% of Citicorp’s existing common shares for $207m ($12.46 per share)—the most that he could without being legally obliged to declare his interest. In February 1991, as American troops stationed in Saudi Arabia were preparing for war with Iraq, the prince spent $590m buying new preferred shares, convertible into common shares at $16 each. This amounted to a further 10% of Citicorp and took his stake to 14.9%. In January 2008, the Prince participated—together with the Singapore government investment corporation and other investors—in a $12.5 Billion capital raise, in an unsuccessful effort to shore up Citi's capital position, but the value of these shares continued to plunge.

Later, he also made large investments in AOL, Apple Inc., MCI Inc., Motorola, News Corporation Ltd and other technology and media companies.

His real estate holdings have included large stakes in the Four Seasons hotel chain and the Plaza Hotel in New York. He sold half of his shares in the latter in August 2004. He has made investments in London's Savoy Hotel and Monaco's Monte Carlo Grand Hotel. He currently holds a 10% stake in Euro Disney SCA, the company that owns, manages and maintains Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallee, France.In January 2005, Al-Waleed purchased the Savoy Hotel in London for an estimated GBP £250 million, to be managed by Fairmont Hotels, his sister, The Princess Sultana Nurul Al-Waleed owns an estimated 16% stake. In January 2006, in partnership with the U.S. real estate firm Colony Capital, Kingdom Holding acquired Toronto, CA-based Fairmont Hotels for an estimated $3.9 billion.

As of 2008, there are plans for the $10 billion construction of the Tallest Building in the World or برج الميل (Arabic for "the Tower of One Mile"), a supertall skyscraper to be the tallest in the world, at one mile (1609 m) in height.

In 1997, Time Magazine reported that bin Talal owned about 5% of News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch's company which is now the parent company of Fox News. By 2010 Alwaleed's stake in News Corp. was about 7% stake at worth $3 Billion noted the 2010 News Corp. $70 million (9%) investment in Al-Waleed's Rotana Group, the Arab World's largest entertainment company. The review also referred to the Al-Waleed investment AOL in the past tense.

Charitable activities

Much of the charitable activities of Al-Waleed are in the field of educational initiatives to bridge gaps between Western and Islamic communities by funding centers of American studies and research in universities in the Middle East and centers of Islamic studies in western universities

World Trade Center attacks

In October 2001, following the World Trade Center attacks, New York mayor Rudy Giuliani turned down a $10 million donation from Al-Waleed for disaster relief after the prince suggested the United States "must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack," and "re-examine its policies in the Middle East." However, Giuliani interpreted his statements as drawing "a moral equivalency between liberal democracies like the United States, like Israel, and terrorist states and those who condone terrorism.".

Palestinians

In 2002, Al-Waleed donated 18.5 million British pounds ($27 million) to the families of Palestinians during a TV telethon following Israeli operations in the West Bank city of Jenin. The telethon was ordered by Saudi King Fahd to help relatives of Palestinian martyrs. The Saudi government maintained the term "martyrs" referred not to suicide bombers but to "Palestinians [who are] victimized by Israeli terror and violence."

2005 Indian Ocean earthquake

In 2005, the Prince contributed $17 million to victims of the 2005 Indian Ocean earthquake which resulted in a tsunami.

Harvard University

In April 2009, Prince Waleed bin Talal donated $20 million to Harvard University, one of its 25 largest donations. http://www.islamicstudies.harvard.edu/overview/about_the_donor.php

Phillips Andover

in 2002, Al-Waleed donated $500,000 to help fund the George Herbert Walker Bush Scholarship at Phillips Academy in Andover. Massachusetts.

Academic Awards

Bachelors of Science in Business Administration, magna cum laude, Menlo College, California, 1979

Masters of Social Science with honors, Syracuse University, 1985

Assets

Kingdom 5KR

Al-Waleed owns the yacht 85.9-meter (282-foot) Kingdom 5KR,, originally built as the "Nabila" for Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. She posed as the Flying Saucer, the yacht of James Bond villain Largo in the film Never Say Never Again. The yacht was later sold to Donald Trump, who renamed her Trump Princess. Al-Waleed bought back the yacht after Trump's second bankruptcy.

He has ordered a new yacht currently known as the New Kingdom 5KR which will be about 173 meters (557 feet) long and carries an estimated cost of over $500 million. The yacht is rendered by Lindsey Design and is expected to be delivered in late 2010.

Al-Waleed owns several aircraft, all converted for private use: a Boeing 747, an Airbus 321 and an Hawker Siddeley 125. Also on order is an Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger aircraft, which is scheduled for delivery in 2012. This has been noted in the 2009 Guinness World Records as the largest private jet in the world.

The Economist has expressed doubts about the source of income of Prince Al Waleed and whether he is a front man for other Saudi investors. According to it, his income in the 1990s was insufficient to cover his expenditures. "You could barely clothe a Saudi prince for such sums, let alone furnish him with a multi-billion-dollar empire. Nevertheless, by 1991 Prince Alwaleed had felt able to risk an investment of $797m in Citicorp", writes the magazine.

Among his many assets are: a 95% stake in Kingdom Holding Company; 91% ownership of Rotana Video & Audio Visual Company; 90% ownership of Lebanese Broadcasting Center ( LBCSAT ); 7% of News Corp (Fox News); about 6% of Citigroup; 17% of Al Nahar and 25% of Al Diyar, two daily newspapers published in Lebanon.

Prince Al-Waleed topped the first Saudi Rich List issued in 2009, with a fortune of $16.3bn.

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