Riyadh, April 21: Shares in Kingdom Holdings, the investment vehicle of Saudi tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, jumped 9.7 percent on Tuesday after Citigroup, of which he is the largest individual shareholder, posted a first quarter profit of 4.4 billion dollars.
Shares in the Riyadh-based global investment group, which Alwaleed shored up in January with the no-cost injection of 180 million of his own Citigroup shares, soared to 10.15 riyals (2.71 dollars) from 9.25 riyals a day after the US banking giant announced its return to profitability following two years spent largely in the red.
After the close, Kingdom itself reported net income sharply up from a year earlier but off by more than half from the group’s buoyant fourth quarter of 2009.
Closely held by Alwaleed, a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah and one of the Gulf’s richest men, Kingdom reported 75.2 million riyals (20.1 million dollars) in net income during the January-March quarter.
That was 50 percent higher than the 50.1 million riyals (13.4 million dollars) a year earlier, when the group sold off hotel and other assets to improve its financial standing following the crash of global markets.
But it also marked a 52 percent plunge from the 155.5 million riyals (41.5 million dollars) reported in the October-December quarter.
“There is cyclicality in hotels and other companies. There is variation,” Kingdom chief financial officer Shadi Sanbar said.
Kingdom said shareholder assets, which include holdings in blue-chip companies like Apple and News Corp as well as luxury hotels, had risen 19.5 percent in the year to March 31 to 25.8 billion riyals (6.9 billion dollars).
“This is explained by the significant improvement in our investment portfolio … and the recent share contribution by (Prince Alwaleed) at no cost to the company,” the statement said.
In January, Alwaleed announced he would inject 180 million of his own shares in Citigroup, valued at the time at 597 million dollars, into Kingdom to strengthen its balance sheet.
Since then the group has also made a bid for outstanding shares in Dubai and London-listed subsidiary Kingdom Hotel Investments, an offer which closes in May.
—Agencies