Born in 1955 Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud is one of the most notorious members of the House of Saud, the nephew of King Salman and the grandson of Ibn Saud, the founder of the modern Saudi state. He rose in power and wealth to become the 7th richest man in the world at one point, having a net worth in excess of $50 Billion USD in 2017, only to become embroiled in a corruption scandal that saw his fortune, and reputation, plummet.
Prince Al Waleed bin Talal’s Early Days
Prince Al Waleed bin Talal had a turbulent childhood witnessing the separation of his parents at a young age, before attending military school in Riyadh, where he was subjected to the rigours of “extreme discipline”. Prince Al Waleed then went on to study in the United States, where he enjoyed the relative freedom of American life, and is said to have “had a riot of time”, graduated in 1979 from Menlo college in California with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.
Shortly after graduation from college Prince Al Waleed started a career as a businessman and entrepreneur, returning to Saudia Arabia he became a prominent player in construction and real estate, shrewdly utilising his connections and powerful position in the royal family to build a burgeoning business empire.
Prince Al Waleed bin Talal’s Business Ventures and Investments
Prince Al Waleed was considered to Arabia what Warren Buffett is to North America, his business acumen and entrepreneurial flair were put to use upon his return to Saudi Arabia in 1979, the main difference of course being that he had a vast family fortune to draw upon.
He returned to Saudi Arabia during the oil boom of 1974 – 1985, and thanks to his exceptional business clear-sightedness, he set up a small office in Riyadh and began using his royal status and connections to gain construction contracts and real estate deals.
Prince Al Waleed’s business strategy was shrewd, he acquired the under-performing Saudi Commercial Bank and turned it into one of the leading Middle Eastern banks by forging mergers with Saudi Cairo Bank and SAMBA.
Prince Al Waleed’s investment ventures came to the attention of the West when he purchased a substantial share in Citicorp/Citibank. His Citibank stake amounted to half his wealth before the downside financial crisis period of 2007-2008. In the financial period ending of 1990, he purchased 4.9 per cent Citicorp’s existing common shares for $207 million. He spent “$590 million buying new preferred shares, convertible into common shares at $16 each.”
In 1997, he invested in News Corp acquiring a five percent ownership stake. This investment paid off to equivalent of $3 billion with a 2% increase. News Corp in turn invested $ 175 million to revamp Prince Alwaleed’s Rotana Group, the Arab World’s largest entertainment company.
Al Waleed’s real estate investment was also a key part of his ascension, and just as critical as his other ventures. He holds large stake in the Four Seasons hotel chain and the Plaza Hotel in New York. He also invested in London’s Savoy Hotel and Monaco’s Monte Carlo Grand Hotel, both which paid serious dividends. In addition he holds 10 percent stake in Euro Disney SCA, the company which runs Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée.
In partnership with the U.S. real estate firm Colony Capital, Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding acquired Toronto-based Fairmont Hotels and Resorts estimated at $3.9 billion. He invested $300 million in Twitter through the purchase of secondary shares from insiders in December 2011.
Court cases and Forbes Magazine
In 2013 Al Waleed bin Talal sued Forbes Magazine, claiming the magazine accused him of manipulating his company’s share price to inflate his net worth and raise his ranking on the Forbes list. The Prince’s libel case against Forbes was rejected by the courts.
Kerry Dolan of Forbes details the Prince’s frequent lobbying of the magazine in her article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2013/03/05/prince-alwaleed-and-the-curious-case-of-kingdom-holding-stock/
The prince also lost a high profile case filed against him in London, involving the sale of his Airbus 340 to the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Businesswoman Daad Sharad sued the Prince after he reneged on their agreement to pay $10 million commission for the selling his plane. The case lasted for several years, as the Prince questioned the jurisdiction of the London courts in the case, however he ultimately lost and was forced to appear and spent two days on the witness stand. Finally Justice Peter Smith ruled against Prince Alwaleed, finding the evidence he provided “unreliable” and “untruthful”.
Prince Al Waleed’s rivalry with Donald Trump
During Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign, both he and Prince Al Waleed bin Talal have found themselves at loggerheads, most often on Twitter, the platform partly owned by the Prince. The spat started when Trump tweeted a photo-shopped image of the Prince, referring to the Prince’s part ownership of Fox.
The Prince responded with mention to his bailouts of Trump, back in the 1990s Prince Al Waleed bailed Trump out of financial difficulties on at least two known occasions.
Prince Al Waleed is one of President Donald Trump’s least favourite Middle East figures, Trump even tweeted his support of the Mohammed bin Salman’s arrest of several princes including Alwaleed.
Trump tweeted: “I have great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they know exactly what they are doing….” He then added: “….Some of those they are harshly treating have been ‘milking’ their country for years!”
Mr. Trump and the Saudi Prince’s feud, which began during the last presidential campaign, carries an irony as there are a lot of parallels between the two divisive figures. Both are flamboyant real estate investors from wealthy families, both have multiple marriages (four for the prince, three for the president) who obsess over their financial status and have strained relations with other establishment elites and media.
Prince Al Waleed bin Talal’s Assets at a Glance
Al Waleed bin Talal’s assets include a “95 percent stake in Kingdom Holding Company; 91 percent ownership of Rotana Video & Audio Visual Company; a 90 percent ownership of LBC SAT; 7 percent ownership of News Corporation; about a 6 percent ownership of Citigroup; and a 17 percent ownership of Al Nahar and a 25 percent ownership of Al Diyar, two daily newspapers published in Lebanon.”
Prince Al Waleed owns the 54th largest private yacht in the world, measuring 85.9-meters (282 ft). He has three palaces, ranging from 250,000 to 4,000,000 sq. meters. Two of these palaces, Kingdom Resort and Kingdom Palace are in the city of Hay al Huda. Kingdom Oasis his third and largest palace in Janadriyah is still under construction.
Prince Al Waleed bin Talal’s Philanthropy Undertakings
Prince Al Waleed bridges gaps between Western and Islamic nations through charitable activities in support of education initiatives. He has funded American studies in the Middle East universities and Islamic studies in Western universities.
He donated £18.5 million to the families of Palestinians following Israeli operations in the West Bank city of Jenin. In 2002, he gave a one-time generous gift of $500,000 to help fund the George Herbert Walker Bush Scholarship at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. In 2004 he contributed $17 million to victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. In 2008, he gave £16 million to Edinburgh University to fund the “centre for the study of Islam in the contemporary world.
Al Waleed bin Talal corruption and eventual arrest
On 4 November 2017, Prince Al Waleed was arrested in Saudi Arabia in a corruption crackdown conducted by a new royal anti-corruption committee. This was done on authority of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, after a lengthy investigation and surveillance of Al Waleed’s activities.
Just days before his arrest, Al Waleed contacted the now murdered US-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and invited him to return to Saudi Arabia.
The arrest was swift, with security forces taking Al Waleed into custody and confiscating a number of phones and laptops. Al Waleed was held in detention at the now infamous Ritz Carlton, where he was interrogated. Prince Al Waleed eventually admitted to a number of wrong doings, and negotiated a price for his release. Prince Al Waleed was fined $6 Billion USD, which was payed to MBS, and then released from detention in late January 2018, nearly three months after his arrest. A number of other Saudi notables were also arrested in the crackdown in 2017 and also made similar financial settlements with the ruling faction of the House of Saud.
Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Net Worth
Prince Al Waleed bin Talal’s net worth is now estimated at $2 Billion USD, down from a lofty $50 Billion several years ago. The Prince still own’s a stake in the now Elon Musk controlled Twitter, as well as numerous other investments through his holding company. The Prince’s financial downfall was mainly caused by a number of investment mis-steps, as well as his corruption scandal which saw him hand over most of his liquid net worth at the time.
Al Waleed bin Talal Awards and Accomplishment
Prince Al Waleed has received many awards and accolades throughout his industrious career, here are a selection:
2002 Awarded Order of Abdulaziz Al Saud, National Order of Cedar.
2009 Received The Order of Izzudin and the Star of Palestine.
2010 Awarded the Dwight D. Eisenhower Award for Innovation.
2012 Awarded the Nepalese Honorary Medal of the Third Order “Mahaujjval Rastradip Manpadvi and Guinea-Bissau’s Colina De Boe Medal
Prince Alwaleed interview with CNBC
Prince Alwaleed interview with Bloomberg
Prince Alwaleed’s work in the international community
Prince Alwaleed meeting the Korean President after KHC signed MOU
Visit Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Al Saud’s personal Website >>
