Citigroup, Twitter: Prince's arrest touches many

With the arrest of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the prominent billionaire investor, Saudi Arabia has touched one of the richest and most influential investors in the world.

Among Prince Alwaleed’s crown jewels: Sizable stakes in Twitter, Lyft, Citigroup and 21st Century Fox. He has gone into business with some of the corporate world’s biggest titans, from Bill Gates to Rupert Murdoch and Michael Bloomberg.

His investments span the globe, including the historic George V hotel in Paris, the Savoy in London and the Plaza in New York. He has also invested in the AccorHotels chain and Canary Wharf, the London business development.

So vast are his investments that he has been referred to as the Warren Buffett of the Middle East. He speaks regularly about the financial world, such as his recent comments expressing scepticism over Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Prince Alwaleed’s arrest is likely to reverberate across dozens of companies that count the investment company that he founded, Kingdom Holding Company, as a major investor or shareholder.

It could also shake investor confidence in Saudi Arabia as the kingdom tries to shed its image as an oil-dependent petrostate. The move comes just days after Saudi Arabia held a major investment conference to drum up interest in that effort.

Prince Alwaleed made early bets on some of the tech world’s biggest stars, also including Snap, riding a boom that has catapulted many young entrepreneurs to top the rich lists, and earned him handsome returns. Prince Alwaleed also made an early bet on JD.com, a Chinese online retailer, anticipating that country’s emergence as a vast e-commerce market.

In moments of corporate crises, Prince Alwaleed has stepped in to tip the balance.

When the phone hacking scandal rocked a London tabloid owned by the Murdochs, the prince went on the BBC to say that Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive officer of the British unit of Murdoch’s News Corporation, had to resign. “You bet she has to go,” he said in July 2011. She resigned the next day.

At the time, Prince Alwaleed was the second-biggest shareholder in News Corporation, with a more than 6 per cent stake. He later sold most of his stake in the company. He also owns a stake in 21st Century Fox, which was a part of News Corporation until it was spun off into a separate listed company in 2013. The prince played a leading role in the shareholder vote to split the two companies, as the second most powerful shareholder behind the Murdoch family.

©2017 The New York Times News Service