In what in retrospect appears a massive blunder, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s investment firm, Kingdom Holding Co., invested over $500 million in Russian firms in the days leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In February, Kingdom Holding Co. acquired depositary receipts for shares in Gazprom PSJC, Lukoil PJSC and Rosneft PJSC, according to a filing.
There were no specific dates for when the shares were acquired, and the firm did not respond to requests for comment as to whether it was still holding them. All of those depository receipts have plunged in value as trading in Moscow was halted and western sanctions were imposed in response to the invasion.
Although he has more recently been eclipsed by the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, chaired by his cousin, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Alwaleed is still considered one of Saudi Arabia’s richest men and highest profile investors. The Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund took a 16.9% stake in Kingdom Holding this past May.
Price Alwaleed was among the elites of the Kingdom who were detained at the Saudi capital’s Ritz Carlton in 2017 during what the Kingdom referred to as an anti-corruption probe. He was never formally charged, and after 83 days he was released, having agreed to an undisclosed “confirmed understanding” with the government.
In February, Kingdom Holding had purchased roughly $365 million in Gazprom’s American depositary receipts, and roughly $52 million in Rosneft’s global depositary receipts, as well as $110 million in Lukoil’s American depositary receipts between February and March.
Kingdom Holding bought $3.4 billion in global equities and depository receipts since 2020, according to the filing. Its largest purchase was about $666 million in Spain’s Telefonica SA, bought between April and August of 2020.
The firm also disclosed it had holdings in Uber Technologies, TotalEnergies SE, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and BHP Group Ltd., mostly acquired in 2020 and 2021. Its most recent investment was a $47 million investment in Hercules Capital Inc., made in June. The firms shares have risen 17% since the start of July.
Alwaleed is known as a fan of famed investor Warren Buffet’s investing style, having once referred to himself as the Oracle of Omaha’s Saudi Arabian equivalent.
