Alwaleed's IPO to value Kingdom at $18bn

Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding will sell 5% of its shares in an initial public offering this year that sources said could value billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's company at more than $18 billion.

The IPO will be priced at between 10.5 and 11 riyals per share and would raise 3.46 billion riyals ($922.7 million) at the top of the range, sources familiar with the transaction said.

Only Saudis will be allowed to buy shares in Kingdom, which had $24 billion in assets at the end of 2006, including holdings in Time Warner Inc., Apple Computer Inc., Motorola Inc. and News Corporation Inc.

Kingdom will offer 315 million existing shares, the Capital Market Authority said, giving the company permission to start book building. It did not say when the IPO would start.

Prince Alwaleed, who holds around 95% of Kingdom's shares, told Middle East Economic Digest last month the IPO would open before the end of the second quarter.

Officials at Kingdom's financial adviser Samba Financial Group could not be reached for comment.

At 63 billion riyals, Kingdom's paid-up capital is more than 2.5 times that of Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the largest company on the Saudi stock market.

Prince Alwaleed is the world's 13th richest person, according to Forbes magazine, and Citigroup Inc.'s largest individual shareholder.

Kingdom Holding is also shareholder of Samba, Savola Group, the Gulf's largest food company by market value, and sole owner of Arab entertainment group Rotana.

Prince Alwaleed began investing after graduating from California's Menlo College in 1979, and a year later he received a $300,000 loan from Saudi American Bank, now known as Samba, which was run by Citicorp, according to his biography.

The prince invested $590 million in Citicorp in 1991 at a time when the bank needed cash as it struggled with Latin American loan losses and a collapse in U.S. real-estate prices. That stake is now worth about $10 billion.

Kingdom said this month it had made an average return on investments of 20% over the last 16 years, outperforming both the MSCI and the Standard & Poor's global indices by more than 10%.

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