Alwaleed’s Kingdom to book gain from land sale in Q3

Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding, the investment vehicle of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, sold a land plot in Riyadh for 250 million riyals ($66.66 million) and expects to book a gain in the third-quarter, it said on Monday.

Kingdom has signed a deal with Subul Development to sell 970,000 square meters of Kingdom Projects land located east of Riyadh, it said in a statement on the Saudi bourse.

The profit from the sale was estimated at 143.7 million riyals ($38.3 million), which will be booked in the third quarter, Kingdom said.

The deal follows other property sales earlier this month, where the Riyadh-based investment firm sold its interest in the Fairmont Hotel and Raffles Suites & Residences in Manila for 218 million riyals ($58.1 million).

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

The firm, which saw a 9.4 percent rise in second-quarter net profit, is planning to raise up to $500 million from a syndicated loan to refinance existing debt.