The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #116966 Message #2515109
Posted By: GUEST,beardedbruce
14-Dec-08 - 02:39 PM
Thread Name: BS: Rich hurting, too
Subject: BS: Rich hurting, too
Note he only started with $1 million- a self-made man!
Prince Alwaleed Loses 19% of Wealth on Global Slump (Update2)
By Shaji Mathew
Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Citigroup Inc.'s largest individual investor, lost 19 percent of his personal wealth in the past year as the global economic slump reduced the value of banking and property assets, according to Arabian Business.
The Saudi billionaire was ranked the wealthiest Arab with assets worth $17.08 billion as of Dec. 2, the 2008 Rich List, published on the Dubai-based magazine's Web site today said. That compares with $21 billion a year ago, the magazine reported, citing Alwaleed's private financial accounts.
"Everyone has been guessing for 20 years" about the assets, Alwaleed was quoted by Arabian Business as saying. "I want you to get it right -- to get it absolutely right."
..... Making Money
Alwaleed, a nephew of the late King Fahd bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, stands out among more than 2,000 Saudi princes because he's made money. After earning a bachelor's degree from Menlo College near San Francisco, he returned to the Persian Gulf and parlayed an inheritance of less than $1 million into a billion- dollar fortune in the 1980s, mostly through real-estate investments, according to Riz Khan's biography "Alwaleed: Businessman, Billionaire, Prince" (William Morrow, 2005.)
The Prince, 53, built his fortune by investing in brand-name companies he considered undervalued, including Apple Inc., News Corp. and Time Warner Inc. Forbes magazine estimated he was worth $21 billion in March, ranking him 19th among the world's billionaires.
Alwaleed was lauded by Time magazine as the Middle East's answer to Warren Buffett, the Sage of Omaha, after his 1991 investment in Citicorp, Citigroup Inc.'s predecessor, helped make the Saudi billionaire one of the world's five richest people.