Kingdom Holding shares end 2012 on five-year high

Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding, the investment vehicle of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, ended 2012 with a share price of SAR20.90 (US$5.57), the stock’s highest level since December 2007.

While the Saudi Arabian Tadawul All-Share Index fell 0.34 percent in on the final day of trading in 2012, Kingdom Holding rose 3.47 percent to record its highest rise in five years.

The news topped a successful year, with third quarter net income rising 21.7 percent, compared to the same quarter a year ago, despite the firm’s hospitality division suffering as a result of the Arab Spring.

“The increase in net income for the third quarter is due to income of real estate investments, dividends from investments in financial markets, improvement of performance from associate companies and reversal of impairment loss,” the Riyadh-based firm said in a statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange.

However, it said the overall rise was “despite the low performance of international hotel companies as a result of current events in the Middle East”.

Overall, net income for the nine-month period hit SAR497.5m (US$132.6m), compared to net income of SAR451.8m for the same period of 2011, a rise of 10.1 percent, Kingdom said.

Kingdom Holding owns stakes in a wide range of global companies including News Corporation, Citibank, Twitter, Four Seasons Hotels, the Savoy Hotel in London, Disneyland Paris, Apple and George V Hotel in Paris.

The company is also backing development of the Kingdom City project in Jeddah, which will include Kingdom Tower, the tallest building in the world when complete.