Al-Waleed bin Talal

*Khaled bin al-Walid
*Reem bint al-Walid

Prince Al-Walid bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud ( _ar. الوليد بن طلال بن عبد العزيز آل سعود) (born 7 March 1955) is a member of the Saudi Royal Family, and an entrepreneur and international investor. He has amassed his fortune through investments in real estate and the stock market. As of 2007, his net worth is estimated at US$29.5 billion, according to the Arabian Business rich list published December 2, 2007. He is ranked by Forbes as the 20th richest person in the world, and is the second richest man in royalty next to the Sultan of Brunei. He has been nicknamed by "Time" magazine as the "Arabian Warren Buffett". [cite web | title=Your chance to quiz Prince Alwaleed | publisher=Arabian Business |url=http://www.arabianbusiness.com/?option=com_content&view=article&id=10878:your-chance-to-quiz-prince-alwaleed&Itemid=1]

Early life

Al-Walid was born to Prince Talal, son of the founding King of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz Al Saud, and Princess Mona El-Solh, daughter of Riad El-Solh, the first Prime Minister of modern day Lebanon and a leader of Lebanese independence. He is also a cousin of Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco, whose mother is Mona's sister.

Al-Walid completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration at Menlo College in 1979 and a Masters in Social Science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University, in 1985. He was also awarded an honorary PhD from the University of Exeter. He has been divorced three times. As of 2006, he is married to Princess Ameera and has two children: Prince Khaled and Princess Reem from his first wife, his cousin Princess Dalal bint Saud bin Abdul Aziz. Despite being the nephew of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, he has stayed outside of the core of political power in Saudi Arabia, instead building a large international corporation called the Kingdom Holding Company, through which he makes his investments.Fact|date=February 2007

Business interests

Al-Walid began his business career in 1979 upon graduation from Menlo College. Funded by a $30,000 loan from his father and a $300,000 mortgage on his house, he initially brokered deals with foreign firms wishing to do business in Saudi Arabia.Facts|date=February 2007 This was followed by land deals in the 1980s, along with major investments in the Saudi banking industry, which proved to be undervalued at the time.Fact|date=February 2007

The Prince's activities as an investor came to prominence when he bought a substantial tranche of shares in Citicorp in the 1990s when that firm was in difficulties. With an initial investment of $550 million to bail out Citibank caused by underperforming American real estate loans and Latin American businesses, his holdings in Citigroup now comprise half of his wealth worth US$10 billion. [http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/28/news/international/bc.saudi.alwaleed.reut/index.htm?postversion=2007012811 ] He has also made large investments in AOL, Apple Inc., Worldcom, Motorola, News Corporation Ltd and other technology and media companies.Fact|date=February 2007

His real estate holdings have included large stakes in the Four Seasons hotel chain and the Plaza Hotel in New York. He sold half of his shares in the latter in August 2004. He has made investments in London's Savoy Hotel and Monaco's Monte Carlo Grand Hotel. He currently holds a 10% stake in Euro Disney SCA, the organization which manages and maintains the Disneyland Resort Paris in Marne-la-Vallee, France. [Disneyland Resort Paris, Annual review 2007, p. 53]

In January 2005 Al-Walid purchased the Savoy Hotel in London for an estimated GBP £250 million, to be managed by Fairmont Hotels, in which Al-Walid owns an estimated 16% stake. In January 2006, in partnership with the U.S. real estate firm Colony Capital, Kingdom Holdings acquired Toronto, CA-based Four Seasons for an estimated $3.9 billion.

As of 2008, there are plans for the $10 billion construction of the Burj Al-Meel (Arabic for "the Tower of One Mile"), a supertall skyscraper to be the tallest in the world, at one mile (1600m) in height.

Charitable activities

Al-Walid is heavily involved in charitable activities across the Middle East, Asia and Africa, and is estimated to donate more than $100 million annually to charity Fact|date=May 2007. Much of this expenditure is in the field of educational initiatives to bridge gaps between Western and Islamic communities by funding centers of American studies and research in universities in the Middle East and centers of Islamic studies in American universities.

United States

*In 2001, he offered New York City a donation of $10 million towards relief efforts after the September 11, 2001 attacks. This was rejected by Mayor Rudy Giuliani because Al-Walid suggested that the attacks were an indication that the United States "should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause." [cite web | title=Giuliani rejects $10 million from Saudi prince | publisher=CNN |url=http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/10/11/rec.giuliani.prince/index.html]
*In 2002, Al-Walid donated $500,000 to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Holy Land Foundation.
*In 2002, Al-Walid donated $500,000 to the George Herbert Walker Bush Scholarship Fund, established by the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, to honor former President George H. W. Bush.
*In December 2005, Al-Waleed donated $20 million each to Harvard University and Georgetown University to fund Islamic studies. The gift to Georgetown, which renamed the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in his honor, was the university's second-largest donation in history, and the gift to Harvard was among its 25 largest.
*In 2006, the Al-Walid donated $10 million to the Weill Medical College of Cornell University establishing the HRH Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud Institute for Computational Biomedicine (ICB). This institute studies complex genomic and cellular systems as they relate to medicine and biology by using mathematical models, physics and high-speed computing.
* In late 2007, Al-Waleed donated $1.48 million to the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). [cite web | title=Kingdom Foundation Chaired by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Donates SR5,550,000 ($1,480,000) to Center for Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) | publisher=The Middle East Times |url=http://www.mideast-times.com/home_news.php?newsid=527]

France

*In July 2005, he donated $20 million to the Louvre Museum, the largest gift ever to the museum. It will help to fund the construction of a wing for the Louvre's vast collection of Islamic art. The wing will consist of a freeform, glassy structure that will bring a modern touch to a neoclassical courtyard. The design for the new wing would involve covering much of the Louvre's Cour Visconti, a neo-Classical courtyard, with a contemporary sail-like roof made up of small glass disks. Officials put the total cost of the wing, by the architects Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti, at $67 million and predicted it would open in 2009.

2005 Pakistan earthquake

*In October 2005, he donated 30 million riyals ($8.3 million) in the form of goods and cash to support relief and reconstruction efforts in wake of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake.

*He also gave $2 million dollars to invest in Pakistan. The regions which benefited from this included Kahuta, the Jhelum valley, and the mountainside region of the Swat River valley.

Mali

*In August 2007, Al-Walid visited Mali to inaugurate the new building he financed to house the headquarters of the Fondation Pour l'Enfance, an organization dedicated to improving the living conditions of Malian and African children, presided by the current First lady of Mali, Touré Lobbo Traore, and founded in the 1990s by her husband, President Amadou Toumani Touré, while he was a private citizen. The new headquarters are in Bamako, Mali. [cite web | title=Fondation Pour l’Enfance: Inauguration du nouveau siège de la Fondation Pour l’Enfance à l’ACI 2000 | publisher=Office of the President of Mali | url=http://www.koulouba.pr.ml/spip.php?article1148]

Political involvement

Al-Walid is not part of the ruling executive within the House of Saud and has generally kept out of politics. However, he has recently started to make overt political statements in his press releases and interviews. His views can be seen as critical of Saudi traditionalism, proposing reforms to elections, women's rights and the economy. He has also openly criticized operation of the state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco. He is vocal about women's rights and hired the first female airline pilot in Saudi Arabia, Hanadi Hindi.

He has also taken a notable pro-American stance, backed up by his $10 million financing of American study programmes at the American University in Cairo.

Al-Walid is a citizen of Lebanon, his mother's country. In recent years, he has taken part in Lebanese politics, backing President Émile Lahoud against since assassinated Lebanese billionaire Rafik Hariri and investing in luxury resorts and pan-Arab Lebanese media: (al-Nahar, LBC International, Rotana Records.

Assets

Al-Walid now owns the yacht "Kingdom 5KR," which is the 282' yacht originally built as the "Nabila" for Saudi billionaire, Adnan Khashoggi. She subsequently posed as the "Disco," the yacht of James Bond villain Largo in the film "Never Say Never Again." The yacht was later sold to Donald Trump, who renamed it "Trump Princess." Al-Walid bought the yacht after Trump's second bankruptcy. [http://yachts.monacoeye.com/yachtsbysize/pages/kingdom5kr02.html Prince Al-Waleed's yacht]

He has ordered a new yacht currently known as the New Kingdom 5KR which will be about 170m long and will costs $500+ million. The yacht is rendered by Lindsay designs and is expected to be delivered in 2009. [ [http://www.agent4stars.com/NewKingdom5KR.htm Agent4Stars.com - Project New Kingdom 5KR ] ]

He owns 300 cars and has been rumored to own a diamond-covered Mercedes SL600 worth an estimated $4.8 million. This, however, is a popular hoax email that has been circulating the internet since 2006 in different forms. [ [http://www.snopes.com/photos/automobiles/diamondmercedes.asp snopes.com: Diamond Mercedes ] ]

At the 2007 Dubai Airshow, Airbus confirmed that Al-Walid, already owner of a Boeing 747 jet converted to private use, had ordered an Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger aircraft. Outfitted for private use, the aircraft is to be delivered in 2010. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7090434.stm Airbus and Boeing win giant order] BBC news - 12 November, 2007] cite news | title = Airbus A380 gets first VIP client | publisher = Flight Global.com| date = 12 November 2007 | url = http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2007/11/12/219458/picture-at-dubai-2007-airbus-a380-gets-first-vip-client.html]

Al-Waleed and his children live in a $100 million sand-colored palace whose 317 rooms are adorned with 1,500 tons of Italian marble, silk oriental carpets, gold-plated faucets and 250 TV sets. It will have four kitchens, for Lebanese, Arabic, Continental and Asian cuisines, and a fifth just for dishing up desserts, run by chefs who can feed 2,000 people on an hour's notice. Their royal highnesses can swim in a lagoon-shaped pool, or catch a film in the 45-seat basement cinema. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/1,9171,987451-5,00.html The Prince And The Portfolio - Time ] ]

Prince Al-Waleed also owns a 317-room palace in Riyadh where most of his guests come to visit him. [ [http://www.forbes.com/2006/03/09/06billionaires-homes-luxury-cx_sc_0309home2.html Homes Of The Billionaires 2006 - Forbes.com ] ] [ [http://www.forbes.com/2005/03/10/cx_sc_bill05_0310home.html Homes Of The Billionaires 2005 - Forbes.com ] ]

ee also

* House of Saud

References

Further reading

*Riz Khan - "AlWaleed: Businessman Billionaire Prince" (HarperCollins, 2005) ISBN 0-06-085030-2
* [http://www.forbes.com/2005/09/06/alwaleed-murdoch-billionaires-cx_gl_0906autofacescan02.html Saudi Prince backs Murdoch (Forbes Magazine September 2005)]

External links

* [http://www.harpercollins.com/global_scripts/product_catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=0060850302 Publisher of his biography]
* [http://www.saudi-us-relations.org/newsletter2005/saudi-relations-interest-01-31.html 2005 Interview with Prince AlWaleed ]
* [http://www.forbes.com/static/bill2005/LIR0RD0.html?passListId=10&passYear=2005&passListType=Person&uniqueId=0RD0&datatype=Person Forbes World's Richest People 2005]
* [http://www.arabianbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12445 'A day in the desert with Prince Alwaleed', ArabianBusiness.com]
* [http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=187913 The mystery of the world’s second-richest businessman] from The Economist
* [http://www.forbes.com/2000/10/09/1005simons.html "The Frogs Of The Prince", Forbes article from 2000]
* [http://www.libanmall.com/hrhmap.htm A mini-portal on Prince Al-Waleed maintained at Libanmall]
* [http://www.libanmall.com/hrhinternationalinvestments.htm Year-wise listing of his international investments since 1991 on a mini ] http://www.theroyalist.net/content/view/1697/1/
* [http://cgi.omroep.nl/cgi-bin/streams?/tv/vpro/tegenlicht/sb.20051113.rm?title=Bekijk%20hier%20vanaf%20maandag%20de%20hele%20uitzending%20SAOEDISCHE%20OPLOSSINGEN%20DEEL%20II A Dutch State television broadcast about Saudi woman with extensive footage of the Prince (Language=Dutch)]
* [http://www.nndb.com/people/242/000094957/ Portfolio]
* [http://blogs.aol.fr/infoauteur/Prince-Alwaleed/ Blog du Prince Al-Waleed Ibn Talal]
* [http://www.kingdom.net/ Kingdom Holding]
* [http://video.google.com/url?vidurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2Fvideoplay%3Fdocid%3D5248387077652418022%26q%3Dalwaleed%26hl%3Den&docid=5248387077652418022&ev=v&esrc=sr1&usg=AL29H221iP9qoYpcUzN_WM5kGbrkb793pg Interview on Charlie Rose show]
* [http://video.google.com/url?vidurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2Fvideoplay%3Fdocid%3D7893416940539069%26q%3Dalwaleed%26hl%3Den&docid=7893416940539069&ev=v&esrc=sr2&usg=AL29H20Ri-E3poCCk8mYQIxPZuHNdvQVBA La vie Incroyable, French documentary about HRH Prince Alwaleed]
* [http://www.theroyalist.net/content/view/1697/1/ Revealed: Camilla's Mystery £1m Benefactor] 31 January 2007
* [http://it.geocities.com/investmentkings82/alwaleed.htm AlWaleed Investment]
* [http://www.arabianbusiness.com/power100/profile/451?clr=2 Power List 2008] Prince again on top in "ArabianBusiness Power 100 2008". [http://www.arabianbusiness.com/power100 World's Most Powerful Arab]