Saudi prince invested $500 million in Russian company ahead of ‘special operation’
The investment company of Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal invested more than $500 million in US corporations right before the appointment of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, follows from information on the website of the Saudi Arabia Stock Exchange. For publication processed attention Bloomberg.
It follows from the document that on February 22, 2022, Kingdom Holding bought the depositary receipts of Gazprom and Rosneft, and in the period from February 22 to March 22, Lukoil’s receipts were bought. The exchange document does not indicate which shares were bought with this money. Kingdom Holding did not answer Bloomberg’s question if it still owns several securities.
Russia launched a “military compressor” in Ukraine in the early hours of 24 February. The United States, Great Britain and other countries almost immediately introduced against Russia. The beginning of the “military operation” led to a sharp drop in capital investments in the market and in the securities of Russian companies. The Bank of Russia stopped trading for almost a month.
The fortune of Al-Walid ibn Talal in 2017 was estimated by the American Forbes at $18.7 billion, ranked 45th in the ranking of the richest businessmen in the world. according to Forbes. Kingdom Holding investments include taxi aggregator Lyft, Twitter, Citigroup and hotel operator Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts. Al-Waleed is one of the richest people in Saudi Arabia and one of the richest countries in the world, Bloomberg notes.
In May, the Gazprom Valuation Council should accept record dividends for 2021: 52.5 rubles per share. However, a month later, through the annual meeting of shareholders, they decided not to transfer dividends. In early July, the State Duma adopted a final decision on the adoption of a law on the one-time collection of a mineral extraction tax for Gazprom: in September-November, it will have to pay almost 1.25 trillion rubles to the budget.
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