Saudi Telecom To Book $166m Gain On Land Transfer To Government

Saudi Telecom Co said on Tuesday it would book a SAR621 million ($166 million) gain in the fourth quarter of this year due to expropriation of some of its land holdings by the government.

The company originally announced in June that the government had seized a 1.05 million square metre plot in the Al Faisaliah district of Riyadh with a book value of SAR105.3 million.

On Tuesday, Saudi Telecom said the government had begun transferring ownership of the land in exchange for compensation of SAR726.3 million.

It added that it did not think the compensation amount valued the land fairly, so it would appeal the decision and announce any changes to the compensation in future.

Land in Al Faisaliah is worth SAR1,300-1,700 per square metre in the old part of the district and SAR1,800-2,700 in the ring road industrial zone, consultants JLL told Reuters in June. Such estimates suggested the land seized from STC could be worth between SAR1.36 billion and 2.83 billion.