Prince Alwaleed bin Talal will sell shares in his Kingdom Holding Co in an initial public offering before the end of next month, the Saudi billionaire said in comments published late on Friday.
"The objective is to be a publicly traded company in Saudi Arabia before the end of this quarter," Alwaleed, the largest individual shareholder in Citigroup Inc, told Middle East Economic Digest in an interview published on its Web site.
Alwaleed did not say how large a stake he would sell in the IPO, which will be open only to Saudi retail and institutional investors. The shares would be listed on Saudi Arabia's main stock index.
"It's an eye-opener for the world to think, 'wow, that company is in Riyadh'," said Alwaleed, the nephew of King Abdullah. Alwaleed is thought to be planning to float a 30 percent stake in Kingdom Holding, worth about $7 billion, The Sunday Times reported last August.
Saudi Arabia's benchmark index slumped 52.5 percent last year, the worst-performing among 81 indices tracked by Birinyi Associates Inc, a US stock market research company.
The index is down another 2.8 percent so far this year. "We feel the Saudi market is becoming more mature. It is not mature yet, but it is maturing," Alwaleed said. "Plus, we always wanted to go public. I always wanted to assist my country, so that is why I decided to put everything here."
Kingdom Holding has major shareholdings in News Corp Inc and US tech heavyweight Apple Computer Inc Alwaleed's Kingdom Hotel Investments is listed on the Dubai International Financial Exchange.
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