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Kingdom Holding Co. to Go Public | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) _ Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal plans to sell shares of his Kingdom Holding company in an initial public offering for 5 percent of the capital, Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange said in a statement.

Fully owned by bin Talal, the company holds stakes in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., Fairmont Raffles Hotels, Time Warner, Apple, PepsiCo, Walt Disney Co. and other corporations.

The IPO for Kingdom Holding Co. will run from July 10 to July 18 on Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange, the Saudi market regulator said Wednesday.

“315 million shares, which represents 5 percent of the company, will be floated for individuals and investment companies to subscribe to,” the stock exchange’s statement said.

The shares are expected to have a face value of between 10.5 and 11 Saudi riyals each, valuing Kingdom Holding co. at about 63 billion riyals (US$16.8 billion, euro12.33 billion), the statement said.

The IPO is expected to raise an estimated 3.46 billion riyals, the statement said.

Kingdom Holding is due to issue a prospectus carrying the final share price and the company’s financial details in the days before the offering, the statement said.

Kingdom Holding co. was established in 1980 and initially focused on construction projects before evolving into one of the largest investment companies in the United States and elsewhere.

In 2006, its total assets were valued at US$24.65 billion, the stock exchange said.

The company has been making an average yearly profit of 20 percent for the past 16 years, the Saudi stock exchange said.

A nephew of Saudi Arabia’s king, bin Talal, 52, is ranked as the world’s 13th-richest person by Forbes magazine.