Saudi’s Kindgom Holding Q4 Net Profit Rises 15%

Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding, the investment firm owned by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, posted a 15 per cent rise in fourth-quarter net profit on Wednesday as gains on investments increased and financial costs fell.

Kingdom made a net profit of SAR266 million ($70.84 million) in the three months to Dec. 31, up from SAR231.2 million from the same period a year earlier, it said in a bourse statement.

It attributed the higher profit to investment gains and lower financial costs.

The investment firm has minority stakes in some of the world’s top companies. Aside from being one of the largest shareholders in Citigroup, it owns stakes in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and microblogging site Twitter.

Kingdom’s net profit in 2014 was SAR869.1 million, up from SAR742.5 million in 2013.