Al-Waleed bin Talal
.. Prinz al - Walid ibn Talal Al Saud (Arabic الوليد بن طلال بن عبد العزيز آل سعود, DMG al - Waleed b Talal b ʿ Abd al - ʿ Aziz Al Sa ʿ ūd, often Alwaleed Bin Talal AlSaud written; * March 7, 1955 in Riyadh ) is a Saudi Arabian investor. He stands with a fortune of 20 billion dollars on place 26 of the Forbes list of the richest people in the world (March 2013) and is the richest Arabs. Prince Walid leading the Kingdom Holding.
Origin
Walid is a grandson of Abd al - Aziz ibn Saud, the founder of the dynasty of Saud, who was from 1932 to 1953 King of Saudi Arabia, and a grandson of Riad as- Solh, the first Prime Minister of independent Lebanon. His father, Talal ibn Abd al - Aziz, the 21 son of Abd al- Aziz ibn Saud in 1962 went as a liberal reformer into the Egyptian exile, where Walid received no appanages as Prince. Walid is the eldest son Talal. In 1964 the family returned to Saudi Arabia, remained excluded from public office. After the divorce of his parents Walid grew up with his mother Muna Sulh in Beirut. In 1975, civil war broke out in Lebanon, Talal Walid sent to the King Abd -al- Aziz Military Academy to Riyadh.
Training
After his study period ( since 1976) at Menlo College ( Business Administration ) in California in 1979, he received ( according to own data ) as the basis for his fortune from his father $ 15,000 and a villa worth 1.5 million dollars. After he had put the money in building companies and the father denied him further grants, Walid took over Villa on a mortgage, successfully speculated in land, built a construction company at ( Kingdom Establishment) and generated up to 1983 a fortune of 450 million dollars. His company benefited from the boom in the construction industry in the 1980s, after the oil price had reached a peak in 1980. At Syracuse University (New York) became Walid 1985 Master ( Political Science ).
Career
He bought the indebted United Saudi Commercial Bank, and led them through several mergers the most profitable bank in Saudi Arabia, and the most important financial institution in the Middle East. From 1987 Walid speculated on Wall Street. After the share price of Citigroup in 1991 dropped to a low, he invested a large portion of its assets, $ 800 million in 15 % of the shares of the Company ( the largest individual shareholder ), these shares controlled long time about half of its assets in (ten billion dollars, 4.3% of Citigroup ). Due to the financial crisis, however, the value of its Citigroup shares fell significantly, he held the end of 2008, around 5 % of the shares, the block of shares had a value of only about $ 1.5 billion.
The American New York Times called Walid as " Arabian Warren Buffett ", to which the American billionaire Warren Buffett Walid wrote that he was known as " Walid America." Prince Walid made , like Buffett, his fortune not to a single product ( eg, steel ), but with investments. He mainly bought shares of world known companies with strong brand names ( Buffett relies on high real value and low prices), which were in poor performance and had liquidity problems.
During a severe price decline on the Saudi stock exchange, where it lost 30 % of its value, the prince announced new investment of $ 2.7 billion, which made for a change of mood.
In Kirch Media Walid allegedly lost $ 350 million. He is involved in Mövenpick to 27%.
The prince had made in May 2005 for a stir when he participated in 15 American companies with a total of one billion dollars. These included Walt Disney, McDonald's, WorldCom, Procter & Gamble, priceline.com, amazon.com and eBay. Walid is among others involved in the New York Plaza Hotel (10%), the Four Seasons hotel chain ( 22%), Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (7% ), Disneyland Paris ( 17.3% ), Apple ( 5%) and the Paris Hotel George V ( 100%).
End of 2011, an investment Walid in the short message service Twitter was known. The prince turned to the Internet company through its Kingdom Holding $ 300 million available and received in return a share of the estimated 3.8 percent.
In March 2013, Forbes magazine put him with a fortune of 20 billion dollars on place 26 of its list of the richest people in the world. Prince Walid complained about this presentation, his assets should be $ 29.6 billion and therefore justify a place in the top ten.
Donate
In an interview with Der Spiegel Walid said in 1999, "God has blessed me with great wealth, which brings with it obligations ." According to reports from Riyadh, the Prince will distribute about 200 million dollars annually.
After the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 in the USA New York Mayor Giuliani refused a donation Walid in the amount of ten million dollars, as the U.S. Walid had previously criticized as too Israel - friendly.
The Prince is a supporter of Hanadi Zakaria al -Hindi and Mona Abu Suleyman.
Mid-2005, Walid donated to the Louvre ( Paris) 17 million Euros for a new department of Islamic Art.
In spring 2006, he donated the two American universities Harvard (Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program ) and Georgetown (Washington DC, Prince al - Walid bin Talal Center for Muslim- Christian Understanding ) per 20 million euros. The Wall Street Journal criticized then the lack of a center for Muslim- Christian Understanding in Saudi Arabia.
Others
In May 2005, the Prince of the ADC 's Global Achievement Award from the American -Arab Anti- Discrimination Committee received.
Walid has been divorced three times and has one son, Khalid ( b. 1978 ), and a daughter, RIM ( * 1982).
In October 2007, he bought the first private customer Airbus A380 Flying Palace in equipment, but sold it shortly before delivery to an anonymous buyer. With the Kingdom 5KR Walid has one of the longest motor yachts in the world. Since August 2012, he has with his new yacht Azzam now officially the largest yacht in the world. It will be 180 meters long, have cost about 500 million euros and was built by Lürssen in Bremen.