Life Style of Al-Waleed bin Talal

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Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al Saud (Arabic: الوليد بن طلال بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود‎, born 7 March 1955) is a Saudi businessman, investor, philanthropist, and a member of the Saudi royal family. He was listed on Time magazine's Time 100, an annual list of the hundred most influential people in the world, in 2008.Al-Waleed is a grandson of Ibn Saud, the first Saudi king, a half-nephew of all Saudi kings since, and a grandson of Riad Al Solh (Lebanon's first prime minister). He is the founder, chief executive officer and 95-percent owner of the Kingdom Holding Company, a Forbes Global 2000 company with investments in companies in the financial services, tourism and hospitality, mass media, entertainment, retail, agriculture, petrochemicals, aviation, technology and real-estate sectors.In 2013, the company had a market capitalization of over $18 billion.Al-Waleed is Citigroup's largest individual shareholder, the second-largest voting shareholder in 21st Century Fox, a minor shareholder in Zaveriwala Holdings LLC and owns Paris' Four Seasons Hotel George V and part of the Plaza Hotel.Time has called him the "Arabian Warren Buffett".In November 2017 Forbes listed Al-Waleed as the 45th richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of $18.7 billion.The previous year, he announced that he would donate his fortune to charity at an unspecified date. He had previously donated $3.5 billion over the course of 35 years through his charitable organization Alwaleed Philanthropies.On 4 November 2017 he and other prominent Saudis (including fellow billionaires Waleed bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim and Saleh Abdullah Kamel) were arrested in Saudi Arabia, in a purge that the Saudi government characterized as an anti-corruption drive.The allegations against Prince Al-Waleed include money laundering, bribery, and extorting officials.Some of the detainees have been in the Ritz-Carlton, Riyadh since then. Al-Waleed was released from detention on 27 January 2018, following a financial settlement of some kind, after nearly three months in detention.In March 2018 he dropped out from the World's Billionaires list.

Al-Waleed was born in Jeddah on 7 March 1955 to Prince Talal bin Abdul-Aziz, long-time known as The Red Prince, and Mona Al Solh, daughter of Riad Al Solh (Lebanon's first prime minister).His father was Saudi Arabia’s finance minister during the early 1960s,before he went into exile due to his advocacy for political reform.Al-Waleed's grandmother was Munaiyir, an Armenian whose family escaped the Armenian Genocide. She was presented by the emir of Unayzah to Ibn Saud in 1921, when she was 12 years old and Ibn Saud was 45.[Al-Waleed's parents separated when he was seven, and he lived with his mother in Lebanon.He first attended Pinewood College in Beirut.As a boy, he ran away from home for a day or two at a time (sleeping in unlocked cars) before attending military school in Riyadh,the King Abdul Aziz Military Academy.In 1974, he returned to Lebanon, attending the Choueifat School and then Manor School.Al-Waleed received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Menlo College in California in 1979, finishing in two and a half years,:43 and a master's degree with honors in social science from Syracuse University in 1985,finishing in eleven months.

Al-Waleed began his business career in 1979 after graduating from Menlo College. He returned to Saudi Arabia, which was in the midst of the 1974–85 oil boom. Operating from a small, four room cabin in Riyadh and $30,000 start-up money provided by Prince Talal, al-Waleed formed Kingdom Establishment in 1980. When that money ran out in a few months, he secured a $300,000 loan from the Saudi American Bank, partly owned by Citibank. Rather than taking a commission for facilitating contracts as the legally required middleman, Al-Waleed insisted on a stake in the project. His first success was in 1982, partnering with a South Korean construction company, and from then on, his commissions were used to fund his real estate deals. In his own words, "All the money I used to get from this construction, I used to plough it back into real estate, and in the stock market, both."After the end of the Saudi oil boom, Al-Waleed acquired the underperforming United Saudi Commercial Bank (USCB). Through mergers with Saudi Cairo Bank (SCB), forming United Saudi Bank (USB), and the Saudi American Bank (SAMBA), it became a leading Middle Eastern bank.The hostile takeover of USCB in 1986, the merger with SCB in 1997, and the merger of USB with SAMBA in 1999, were the first of their kind in the Kingdom. He then secured a majority in Al-Azizia Panda, merging it with the Savola Group, and took over National Industrialization Company.By 1989, his net worth was $1.4 billion, and included stakes in Canary Wharf, Four Seasons Hotel Group, and News Corporation. When Alwaleed turned to the international market, he focused on "established brands going through hard times," as Riz Khan puts it. Alwaleed would do his homework, and then wait for the proper purchase entry point. He invested about $250 million in Chase Manhattan, Citigroup, Manufacturers Hanover, and Chemical Bank. After seven months, he sold his stakes in the other banks and concentrated on investing in Citicorp, acquiring 4.9 percent of the bank. Though the worst performing bank of the four, Alwaleed considered Citicorp had the best potential.In Sept. 1990, Citibank was undercapitalized due to real estate credit losses and exposure to Latin America debt, prompting a need for a capital reserve. By Nov. they were actively seeking investors. Based on his banking experience in the Kingdom, Alwaleed agreed in Jan. 1991 to invest $590 million, about half his accumulated wealth, in a five year convertible security paying 11 percent interest. By Feb., that took his total investment in Citicorp to $797 million, or about 15 percent of the company. Though he had received a Federal Reserve temporary waiver to own such a large portion of the company, Alwaleed sold enough shares in 1993 to get below the 10 percent threshold. Still, he was the largest shareholder in the largest US financial institution at the time. Yet, in Alwaleed's words, "It is not a relationship, it's an alliance. We are there forever with them." Sandy Weill says of Alwaleed, "I think what he did really saved the bank.In 1993, Alwaleed purchased a 10 percent stake in Saks Fifth Avenue for $100 million. A flagship store was then opened in Riyadh.In 1994, Alwaleed secured a 50 percent controlling interest in Fairmont, and a 22 percent stake in the Four Seasons. In 1995, he bought a 42 percent stake in the Plaza Hotel. Then, in 1996, he bought the George V for $185 million, and spent $120 million renovating it for a reopening in Dec 1999. Regarding Alwaleed's investment in the George V, Issy Sharp states, "...he created value where no one else could..."Also in 1994, Alwaleed bought a 24 percent stake in Euro Disney for $345 million.In 1995, Kingdom Establishment for Trading and Contracting was reorganized as the Kingdom Holding Company, and Alwaleed announced construction of the Kingdom Centre, Kingdom Hospital, Kingdom School and Kingdom City. Also in 1995, he bought a 2.3 percent share of Mediaset after haing invested earlier in the Arab Radio and Television Network, acquiring 30 percent. In Oct. 1995, Alwaleed joined a consortium which paid $1.2 billion for control of Canary Wharf, with Alwaleed's share of the company amounting to 6 percent, costing him $66 million.In March 1997, Alwaleed purchased a 5 percent stake in Apple Inc., making him the largest shareholder. In Nov. 1997, he purchased 1 percent share of Motorola for $287 million and a five percent share of Netscape for $146 million, before its purchase by AOL and merger with Time Warner. In 2001 and 2002, Alwaleed increased his stake in AOL Time Warner by another $540 million. He also invested in MCI, Fox Broadcasting and other technology and media companies.Time reported in 1997 that Alwaleed owned about five percent of News Corporation, which he purchased for $400 million, making him the third largest shareholder. In April 1999, Alwaleed purchased an additional $200 million of preferred shares.In 2010 his News Corporation stake was about seven percent ($3 billion). Three years later News Corporation had a $175 million (19-percent) investment in al-Waleed's Rotana Group, the Arab world's largest entertainment company. A review of his holdings implied that al-Waleed had sold his investment in AOL. In April 1997, Alwaleed purchased a 4 percent stake in Planet Hollywood for $57 million, and another 16 percent in Nov 1998 for $45 million.In Oct. 1997, Alwaleed bought 27 percent of Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, which he increased to 33 percent in 2003.In 1999 The Economist expressed doubts about the source of his income, wondering if he was a front man for other Saudi investors: He has not earned enough income from his investments to pay for all that he has spent in the 1990s. The mystery goes back to that first stake in Citicorp. The prince has declared that this money came entirely from his personal funds. He says he started out in 1979 with a loan of just $30,000 from his father. He also mortgaged a house that his father had given him, raising something like $400,000. And each month, as a grandson of Ibn Saud, he receives $15,000. 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.Alwaleed invested in WorldCom, Priceline.com, Coca-Cola, and Ford Motor Company, totaling almost $2 billion. In Asia, he bought 5.9 percent of Daewoo for $50 million, which he increased to 18 percent with an additional $100 million investment, 3 percent of PROTON Holdings for $46 million, 3 percent of Ong Beng Seng's Hotel Properties Ltd., and $50 million worth of Hyundai Motor Company bonds. In Africa, he invested $50 million, acquiring 10 percent of Sonatel, 10 percent of EcoBank, 13.7 percent of United Bank for Africa, and 14 percent of CAL Bank. Investments which turned out poorly included WorldCom, Priceline, Teledesic, and Kirch Media, besides Planet Hollywood and Euro Disney.His stake in Apple was sold in 2005. Al-Waleed also invested in Eastman Kodak and TWA, both of which performed moderately well.In 2002, Alwaleed formed Kingdom Hotel Investments to oversee his hotel assets :108 By 2003, Alwaleed owned 100 percent of Rotana, and 49 percent of LBC Sat :144-146 His real-estate holdings included large stakes in the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and New York's Plaza Hotel; al-Waleed sold half his shares in the Plaza in August 2004. He has invested in London's Savoy Hotel and Monaco's Monte Carlo Grand Hotel. Al-Waleed holds a ten-percent stake in Euro Disney SCA, the company which owns, manages and maintains Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée.:113-114 In January 2005 Al-Waleed purchased the Savoy Hotel in London for an estimated £250 million, to be managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts; his sister, Sultana Nurul, owns an estimated 16-percent stake. In January 2006, in partnership with the U.S. real-estate firm Colony NorthStar, Kingdom Holding acquired Toronto-based Fairmont Hotels and Resorts for an estimated $3.9 billion. It was reported in 2009 that Al-Waleed owned 35 percent of Research and Marketing Group (SRMG), a large Mideast media company.The 2004 Forbes list of wealthiest people had Alwaleed fourth, with a net worth of $21.5 billion. More than $1.3 billion was in hotel holdings. :99,115 In August 2011 al-Waleed announced that his company had contracted with the Saudi Binladin Group to build the world's tallest building, the Kingdom Tower (at a height of at least 1,000 metres (3,300 ft)) for SR 4.6 billion.The original plan—announced in 2008—called it برج الميل (Arabic for "One-Mile Tower"), at a height of 1,609 metres (5,279 ft) and an estimated cost of $20 billion.In December 2011 Al-Waleed invested $300 million in Twitter, purchasing secondary shares from insiders.The purchase gave Kingdom Holding a "more than 3% share" in the company, which was valued at $8 billion in late summer 2011.