Will the Al-Waleed Bin Talal empire collapse?

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Sun, 05 Nov 2017 - 02:06 GMT

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Sun, 05 Nov 2017 - 02:06 GMT

Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal leaves the High Court in London July 2, 2013. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo

Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal leaves the High Court in London July 2, 2013. REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo

CAIRO – 5 November 2017: Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud announced late Saturday the formation of a new anti-corruption committee headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and ordered the detention of 11 emirs, four current ministers and dozens of former ministers.

Saudi billionaire prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, owner of Kingdom Holding Company, is among the detainees under investigation by a new anti-corruption committee, a senior Saudi official told Reuters on Sunday.

The Saudi stock market fell early on Sunday after the reshuffle and arrests of prominent figures in Saudi Arabia, including that of Al-Waleed Bin Talal.

The shares of Kingdom Holding Company, owned by Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal, collapsed on Sunday and lost about 10 percent of their value.

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Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - File Photo

Bin Talal was born in Riyadh in 1955 to a Saudi father and Lebanese mother. His father Talal bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud is the son of King Abdulaziz Al-Saud, founder of Saudi Arabia. His mother is Princess Mona Riad Al-Solh, daughter of Riad Solh, the first prime minister of Lebanon after the independence.

Al-Waleed received 23 Ph.D. degrees, more than 70 Arab and foreign names, 22 honorary citizenship certificates, more than 200 awards, a medal and a title.

Al-Waleed heads the board of directors of Kingdom Holding Company, which was established in 1980. The hotel sector of the company owns the Four Seasons, Fairmont Raffles Holding International and Movenpick, as well as real estate investment and hotel properties including New York Plaza Hotel, Savoy London, George V Hotel, and Four Seasons Paris.

He also owns media organizations, including Century Fox, Financial Services and Investment, Citi Group and Twitter. He also owns the National Manufacturing Company.

Al-Waleed also owns Kingdom Schools, Kingdom Hospital and Consultancy Clinics and the Aviation National Air Services Company. He also contributes to large international companies such as Apple, and Careem.

Forbes magazine ranked him 22nd in 2009 among the world's richest people with a fortune of $13.3 billion. In 2010 he rose to 19th place.

He was also famous for daring to express his political views and made headlines in 2015 when he described Donald Trump as a "shame" on Twitter during the U.S. election campaign.

"Prince Al-Waleed wants to control American politicians with his father's money, you cannot do that when I'm elected," Trump responded in a tweet.

Al-Waleed was also a supporter of Saudi women's employment and lifted a ban on women driving cars.





On August, Al-Waleed bin Talal visited Egypt and met with several Egyptian businessmen and injected new investments worth $800 million.

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Ministry of Investment Sahar Nasr and the Saudi Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal - Press Photo

These projects included new investments in the expansion of the Four Seasons resort in Sharm El-Sheikh to become the largest resort in the world. He also invested in the media sector through Rotana Media and Humanity Group, the Al-Waleed Foundation for Humanity and other projects.

During his visit, Bin Talal praised President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi for his great efforts in promoting the Egyptian economy, adding that he has investments in various sectors in Egypt.

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