Prince Alwaleed said to eye fresh investments, hires advisors

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is working with advisors, including Goldman Sachs Group, to find investments as large as $3 billion for his publicly traded investment firm Kingdom Holding Co., Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

“Right now we are in discussions with certain companies in the US for certain deals,” Alwaleed told the news agency. “Although the market right now in the US is -- I’d not say overvalued -- but prices are not where we would wish them to be.”

Kingdom Holding is seeking to raise $1 billion to $2 billion in debt. Alwaleed described this as “firepower” for local, regional or international investments of $1 billion to $3 billion, the report said.

The businessman is also considering dividing the company’s $13 billion of assets through a spinoff of its domestic property and other holdings.

“It will take some time as we are still developing that matter,” Alwaleed said. “Our CEO is thinking in these terms.”

Kingdom Holding’s current investments include stakes in Citigroup Inc., Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts and Twitter Inc.

Its domestic holdings, including the one kilometer-high tower under construction in Jeddah, make up about half of Kingdom Holding’s assets. These, Alwaleed said, could be spun off into a real estate investment trust.

Meanwhile, Alwaleed, who was released from Ritz-Carlton in January following the anti-corruption drive in Saudi Arabia, has said he wants to reassure partners that his business is intact and fully functioning.

“I understand it’s not going to be easy at all -- some people in business community will be doubtful, will say, ‘What’s going on?,’” Alwaleed said. “However, I assure them that everything is normal and we are functioning as we were before and we welcome them to come here to see what we’re doing in Saudi Arabia and life is back to normal.”