Al- Waleed Bin talal Net worth, Money and More
Net Worth : $19.9 Billion
Chairman and CEO of Kingdom Holding and Saudi Prince Al-Waleed Bin talal has an estimated net worth of $19.9 Billion as of March 2014 His net worth has been declined by over 100 million as compared to last year.
Life & Career
An international and most prominent businessman and fund raiser Saudi Arabia’s prince Al- Waleed Bin talal was born in 1955 into the Royal family of Saudi at Riyadh. He is the grandson of King Abdulaziz. Al- Waleed attained a bachelors degree in business administration from Menlo College situated in California and further attained a masters degree in Social Science from Syracuse University.
In 2013, Al-Waleed was ranked as the most influential Arab in the World by Arabian Business. and the same year Forbes Magazine listed him as the 26th richest man of the World with an estimated net worth of $20 million in 2013.
After completing his graduation, Al-waleed returned to Saudi Arabia to establish his business in the year 1979. He started operating from a small office in Riyadh, which happens to be his birth place and slowly he became a pro at building contracts and cracking real estate deals. During that period Saudi was in the middle of Oil boom, hence oil boom made a lot of fortune for the prince. After the end of the boom, he thought of changing his business strategy and took over an under performing Saudi bank called Saudi Commercial Bank. He then collaborated the bank with Saudi Cairo Bank and SAMBA and turned an under performing bank into a leading middle eastern bank. Because of his cunning business sense Al- waleed got his first portfolio featured in Forbes in the year 1988.
He began his role as an investor in the year 1991 when he purchased shares of Citicorp when the company was facing monitory crisis. Back then as an investor to help the citicorp bail out of debts he made an investment of $550 million in form of shares. Today he has a share of over $1 billion in Citicorp shares. He soon began investing his huge wealth into several existing companies. In 1997 he invested in Rupert Modoch’s News corporation. It was reported that the prince owns 5% of News Corporation and by the year 2007 Al-Waleed ended up owning 7% of News corporation which comes down to $3 billion.Post financial crisis Al-Waleed made another investment into Citicrop and took his stake from 10% to 14.9% . Later Al-waleed made huge investments in big companies like Fox News, Motorola, Apple, Aol, Eastman Kodak and TWA to name a few. However he sold his stake in Apple in 2005.
Apart from investing into big companies, Al-Waleed made holding in real estate as well. He hold a huge share in the Plaza Hotel chain in New York, however he sold half of his share later in 2004. He made another real estate investment in Monte Carlo Grand Hotel and Savoy Hotel in Monaco and London respectively. Currently he owns a 10% stake in a Disney SCA which is owned by Disneyland Paris. He purchased the Savoy Hotel of London For over $500 million and in 2006 he partnered with Colony Capital, a US based real estate company and took over Fairmont Hotels and Resorts based in Toronto for a whopping $3.9 Billion. Apart from all these investments Al-Waleed owns 35% of SRMG, and has made an investment of over $300 million in Twitter. which equals to 3% of the total share of Twitter valued at over $8 billion.
Apart from this Al-Waleed first got married to Talal Bint Saud the daughter of King Saud. The couple together have two children named Reem and Khalid, however things went sore and the couple decided to part ways over undisclosed reason. They are now Divorced. Prince later got married to Princess Ameerah in 2006. The couple don’t have any children yet but they are happily married.
Wealth
Al-waleed owns a Promotion palace in Riyadh. This palace is mostly use for the purpose of Public relation activities and hence the name suggests is called Promotion palace. the Palace is in spread of over 400,000 square feet and features 317 rooms. All the rooms are laced in Italian marbles and silk carpets. The home has gold plated faucets and is home of more then 500 TV sets. Apart from this the home features a swimming pool and a cinema hall that can accommodate 45 people. The property is estimated to be worth over $300 million.
The prince also owns a place called Kingdom Oasis situated in Janadriyah. The palace is still under contraction.However, this luxury palace is going to be in the spread of 4,000,000 Square meters and will include a 70,000 square meter lake and a private Zoo.
The Saudi prince purchased his Turin Mansion in 2009. The house is in spread of 21,500 square feet and in addition to it, features a 173 acres land that includes beautiful flowers like orchards, and other vegetable gardens. This mansion located on the slopes of Turin hills is most fascinating in the Europe. The property is worth over $600 million.
Kingdom Resort is where the prince entertains his high profile guests. The resort is in spread of 500,000 square meters and dawns three lakes and splendid gardens.
Saudi Prince being a serial investor by his nature invested in a 282 foot long Yacht called Kingdom 5KR. This Yacht that prince bought in 1991 for $40 million also appeared in movies like “Never say Never Again as the Flying Saucer” The yacht was originally built in 1980 at the cost of $100 million and was called Nabila. However the prince changed the Yacht’s name to Kingdom 5kr. The yacht features a disco, a helipad, a cinema house, a pool and 11 guest suits and many other luxury rooms. The yacht can accommodate over 50 people including crew.
Al-Waleed made another investment of $500 million on a new gaga Yacht called The New Kingdom 5KR. This Yacht is 557 feet long and is the third largest Yacht in the World. This Yacht is expected to deliver by mid 2014.
Apart from this the Prince owned a Airbus A380 jet plane with parking space for prince’s Rolls Royce. He currently owns a limited edition Mini corporate jet worth over $300 million. and another private jet Boeing 747 with customized interior including two bedrooms worth over $400 million.
The ultra Rich prince of Saudi Al- Waleed owns more then 300 Ferrari which is most exotic and luxurious car ever built. He also own over 15 Lamborghini and Rolls Royce with combined worth of over $1 billion.
Apart from ordinary metal made cars and bikes driven on the roads, The billionaire Saudi prince owns a $4.8 million worth diamond studded Ducati sports bike. The bike is partially crafted by Crystals and partially by diamonds. Apart from this the prince also owns a diamond studded Mercedes SL600 worth over $20 million.
The Billionaire prince apart from spending his wealth on luxury believes in donation too. He is associated with Al-Waleed bin talal Humanitarian Foundation which offers help to Lebanese people for health, education and social development.
He also established a research center at universities in Arab. The foundation works towards preservation of Islamic Cultural and artistic Heritage around the World.
