Prince Alwaleed pays up

Saudi Arabian media billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, recently released from ‘arrest’ has said how much the agreement that permitted his release from detention at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh has cost him.

The prince, via his Kingdom Holdings business, says that he is paying over around $30 million a month to his former captors. “The prince gave up his full entitlement of his share of the proposed annual cash distributions,” Kingdom Holdings said in a statement. Alwaleed has “waived” a portion of his dividend for last year worth $79.8 million per quarter-year, hence the $30 million suggestion.

Prince Alwaleed controls the Rotana music-to-movies empire as well as significant holdings in Twitter. He is worth around $17 billion according to Forbes. Kingdom Holdings has a reported value of $13 billion.

A week ago it was widely reported that the prince has decided to sub-divide Kingdom Holdings. In an interview with Bloomberg News he stressed that Kingdom Holdings was operating normally, and that he still controls 95 percent of the company. He added that while the conditions of his release from detention remained confidential there was “zero guilt” or “conditions” attached to his release.

However, a previous report in March in the Wall Street Journal stated that all decisions regarding Kingdom Holdings now had to be approved by Saudi Arabia’s powerful Prince Mohammed bin Sultan.