Middle East Focus: How Self-Made can a Saudi Prince be? How Stupid can Western Media be?............

Arabia Deserta

How Self-Made can a Saudi Prince be? How Stupid can Western Media be?............

“Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud is a man who wears many hats. One of the richest men in the world, he has recently been accused of being one of the financiers behind the planned Islamic center in downtown Manhattan by Fox News -- which is owned by a company in which, ironically, he is also a major stakeholder. …… (1) How reliable are the figures for his wealth? The prince took issue with the Forbes listing, which attempts to assess net worth in large part by valuing known stock holdings. In 2009, he invited a reporter from the magazine to his Saudi palace, with the objective of "setting the record straight" about his wealth. "For years, the prince has told us he was worth several billion dollars more than the conservative estimates we printed in our list," Forbes wrote. (2) How good an investor is he? In 2000, Forbes valued him at $20 billion; this year it was $19.4 billion. His wealth has been up and down over the years, but mostly hovers around $20 billion. His investments are now spread across banks, hotels, real estate, media and industry. Personally, I would expect better growth from my investment manager. (3) How did he become rich? Is it all his own money? In Saudi Arabia, it certainly helps if you are a prince. Al-Waleed started off with $15,000, which was given to him by his father, and initially grew his wealth by representing South Korean construction companies. He has always denied suggestions that he acts as an investment front for other Saudi royals who want to avoid a public profile. Forbes puts him in the category of "self-made" moguls…….”

Self-made: I just love that one: a self-made Saudi prince. If you believe that he is self-made, that he started with only $ 15,000, then I have another three-legged but very useful camel to sell you. But that is okay for Forbes to consider him “self-made”. Steve Forbes, its CEO, probably considers himself very self-made as well. Still, it is possible for a person to make himself anything he wants regardless of birth, even an a--hole, and I am not necessarily describing Steve Forbes here. Not necessarily at all.
As for Price al-Waleed, I suspect that buying shares of Citigroup at high prices (up to $44/share) may have contributed to the decline of his portfolio below the reported $ 20 billion (Citigroup share has been stuck in a $4.5- $ 3.5 range for about two years now. Other sovereign funds in the Gulf states also bought Citigroup shares when it was very high a few years ago. One of these funds claimed last year to have sold its shares, shares it had bought at around $ 40, and made a profit by selling at $ 4 per share. A miracle of accounting creativity, unless I missed something.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com