The Gulf’s most famous investor, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal – grandson of Saudi Arabia’s founder King Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, and listed by Forbes as the world’s eighth richest person – has turned his Midas gaze on Africa. Having invested in some of the biggest global players – as white knight to Citigroup, and then buying into Boeing, Disneyland Paris, McDonald’s, Apple Computers, News Corp, Procter & Gamble and a number of top hotel chains – Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding Company has emerged as one of the leading investors in the African continent.
Just as, in the 1980s, Prince Alwaleed invested in the under-valued Saudi banking system, he’s now buying up major interests in Africa’s financial sector. They include holdings in Ecobank, west Africa’s largest banking network, United Bank of Africa, Nigeria’s third largest bank, and Ghana’s CAL Merchant Bank. The billionaire prince has also carved out a niche in African equity markets, and in July 2005 announced a joint venture with HSBC to invest in fast-growth businesses.
“Africa has enormous potential... and is a major priority for me,” the prince has said. Like other Gulf investors, Prince Alwaleed has bought into the fast growth in African telecoms, acquiring a stake in Senegal’s state company Sonatel. However, it is in the property and tourism business that Alwaleed has excelled, taking his Four Seasons franchise to ever more unlikely destinations. Kingdom Hotel Investments is now the continent’s largest private hospitality investor. It owns and manages hotel chains and properties in 17 countries.