Kingdom Holding net grows 47% on revenue from hotels

Net income increased to 135.4 million riyals ($36.1 million) from $24.5 million in the year earlier period, the Riyadh based company said in a statement to the Saudi bourse today.

The company is “experiencing improving results from its hotel operations and its domestic entities,” it said.

Kingdom Holding restructured some of its management and business to drive growth after struggling through the global financial crisis.

Sarmad Zok, chief executive officer of the lodging unit Kingdom Hotel Investments, was appointed to the board of Kingdom Holding and its investment committee and PJ Shoucair resigned as executive director of international investments on June 30.

Kingdom Holding lowered its share capital by 41 percent to $9.89 billion earlier this year and offered on March 15 to purchase the rest of the shares in Kingdom Hotel Investments. The shares of the hotel company were delisted from Nasdaq Dubai last month.

In a seperate emailed statement on Tuesday, Prince Alwaleed said: “Financial results will continue to grow during the remainder of this year.”

He added: “Kingdom Holding has in place a very well defined vision. Its executive team, with the recent addition of Sarmad Zok, is fully committed to achieving the company’s financial objectives.”

Kingdom Holding and its hotels unit may sell minority stakes held in hotels as part of a plan to focus on higher income properties, Zok said on June 30.

Kingdom Holding owns a 50 percent stake in the Savoy Hotel in London, 35.5 percent of the Plaza Hotel in New York and 50 percent of the Fairmont in San Francisco, according to information provided by Kingdom Hotel Investments.

Kingdom Holding’s shares were unchanged for the third day at 8 riyals a share in Riyadh today, valuing the company at $7.89 billion. The stock has climbed 0.3 percent this year. (Reuters)