Kingdom Holding - an investment company of Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal - has acquired a confidentiality certificate issued by Russian oil and gas groups Gazprom, Lukoil and Rosneft in February, according to documents on the stock exchange.
There is no specific date for the investments and the Saudi Arabian company did not answer questions about whether it still owns them. The value of all those deposits has fallen sharply since the Ukraine war began, when trade in Russia was halted and Western sanctions were imposed on Moscow, Bloomberg reported.
Prince Alwaleed - whose grandfather was the founder of modern Saudi Arabia - is one of the richest people in the country and the richest in the Middle East, and the most famous international investor.
Recently, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, chaired by Prince Mohammed bin Salman - Alwaleed's cousin - bought a 16.9% stake in Kingdom Holding in May, worth $1.5 billion.
Prince Alwaleed was detained at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the capital Saudi Arabia in 2017 along with other princes and government officials to serve the anti-corruption investigation. No official charges were filed and Prince Alwaleed was released after 83 days.
Kingdom Holding invested 1.37 billion riyals ($365 million) in Gazprom's US depository certificate in February - the largest of which was disclosed so far this year. The company also invested 196 million riyals in Rosneft's global riding certificate in the same month and 410 million riyals in Lukoil's US riding certificate from February to March.
Kingdom Holding has invested $3.4 billion in global stocks and securities since 2020. The largest stake is a 2.5-billion-VND investment in Spanish Telefonica SA from April to August 2020.
The company also re-seasoned shares of Uber, Totalenergies SE, Alibaba and BHP, mostly in 2020 and 2021. The most recent deal the company disclosed was a 178 million riyal stake in Hercles Capital Inc., in June. The risk-off company's stock has risen 17% since early July.
Prince Alwaleed, 67, has become one of the prominent Saudi Arabian investors after buying shares of companies such as Citigroup and Apple. He has supported Prince Mohammed's modernization efforts, including giving women the right to drive.
More recently, Prince Alwaleed announced the sale of rotana Music's stake in Warner Music Group, and he has raised $2.2 billion after selling a stake in the Four Seasons hotel chain to Bill Gates' Cascade Investment LLC.
Prince Alwaleed is known for his long-term investments and is a fan of the famous investor Warren Buffett. He once called himself the tien tri of Omaha in Saudi Arabia.
