Saudi billionaire's firm posts $8.26bn net loss in Q4, investments hit by global crisis.
Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's Kingdom Holding posted a 30.98 billion riyal ($8.26 billion) net loss in the fourth quarter after its investments were hit by the global downturn.
"The loss is mainly due to losses realised on our investments in capital markets," the company said in a statement posted on the Saudi stock exchange website.
Kingdom made a net profit of 255.7 million riyals ($68.18 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, 2007.
The Saudi billionaire liquidated in 2008 some of the international and local assets owned by his Kingdom Holding Co, which lost over eight billion dollars in the fourth quarter, a board member said.
Speaking to Dubai-based Al Arabiya television on Tuesday, Ahmad Halawani declined to say if Kingdom liquidated shares it held in troubled U.S. firm Citigroup.
He did not name any of the companies in which Kingdom sold its holdings. (Reuters)
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