Kingdom Holding posts $41.6m profit

Saudi-based Kingdom Holding posted a net profit in the fourth-quarter following a loss in the same period a year ago.

The firm, which is 95-percent owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, made SR156 million ($41.6m, Dh152.7m) in the three months to end-December, 2009, it said in a statement on the bourse website. In 2008 it reported a SR30.98 billion net loss for the same period.

It attributed the improvement to the fact "results for the fourth-quarter of 2008 included provisions to compensate for the decline in investments and also realised losses in some financial investments of SR30.5bn".

Annual earnings per share stood at SR0.06 against a net loss per share of SR4.75 in 2008, it added.

Operating profit amounted to SR549m, compared to SR14.26bn in operating losses in 2008.

Kingdom Holding, an investment company that has minority stakes in some of the world's top companies, is a main shareholder in Citigroup. It said on January 5 that it would cut its capital by 41 per cent.

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