Alwaleed Bin Talal buys shares in French Deezer at SAR 1 bln

Kingdom Holding Co.’s (KHC) Chairman, Alwaleed Bin Talal, announced finalizing a SAR 1 billion deal to purchase newly-issued shares in French Deezer, through Kingdom Holding and Rotana Group.

The two parties signed an exclusive long-term distribution agreement, under which Deezer will distribute Rotana’s content across the Middle East and North Africa, according to a statement seen by Argaam. 
 

This investment will accelerate Deezer’s global expansion in the region to include fast growing international markets, including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Turkey, the statement added.

Talal highlighted that the investment in Deezer and the signed deal as well represent a paradigm shift for the Kingdom Holding, as a continuation for its strategy in finding prominent emerging techniques.

Although lesser-known to consumers in the U.S., Deezer has long been a significant competitor to Spotify in Europe. The company claims to have 14 million monthly active users, and boasts a catalog of 53 million tracks.

Deezer is an Internet-based music streaming service. It allows users to listen to music content from record labels.