Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal buys 5 per cent of Kuwait Invest Holding Company

This is the second direct investment by the Prince in a company quoted on the Kuwait Stock Market - the first was when he bought 5% of International Financial Advisors.

Kuwait Invest Holding is part of the Jassim Al-Bahar Group of Companies. Prince Al Waleed invested 5% in IFA's capital in September 2003. IFA is now worth over US $1 billion.

HH Prince Al Waleed commented: "Our investment in Kuwait Invest Holding Company is an extension and continuation of our strategic co-operation with Mr Jassim Al-Bahar and International Financial Advisors."

Jassim Al-Bahar is the Chairman of IFA. He commented: "We welcome and are proud of Prince Al Waleed's investment in Kuwait Invest Holding. This is the second investment in the Kuwait Stock Market by His Highness within a year and it will further strengthen the Kuwait Stock Market.

"The investment is also a sign of IFA's success in attracting investment to the Kuwait Stock Market through appealing to world-renowned investors, such as Prince Al Waleed, as well as other major financial companies and individuals on both a regional and international level."

Kingdom Hotel Investment (KHI), which has Prince Al Waleed as its CEO, signed a strategic co-operation agreement with Jassim Al-Bahar in September 2002. Under the agreement the two agreed that Al-Bahar would invest US $26.2 million (Saudi Riyals 98.25) to buy shares in Kuwait Hotel Investment and to directly own shares in the Four Seasons Hotel, Beirut, while Prince Al Waleed would invest in International Financial Advisors and KHI would invest, along with the Fairmont Hotel, in IFA's development on Dubai's Palm, Jumeirah project.

Al-Bahar said he hoped for further co-operation with Kingdom Holding Company and said its initial alliance has started to pay off via KHI's co-operation on several resort projects with the Four Seasons Company and Movenpick in the Arab world and Africa, in addition to co-operation with Fairmont Hotels and Resorts in the Palm, Jumeirah in Dubai.

Both groups are now studying further co-operation in Kuwait and other Middle Eastern countries, as well as South Africa, Zanzibar and the Indian Ocean, in particularly Mauritius.

Al-Bahar said IFA is currently moving to enter the Dubai and Johannesburg financial markets. The company currently has investments totalling US $1 billion in Dubai and US $3 billion in South Africa. The geographic diversification of investment is in line with IFA's strategy of using a variety of investment tools and spreading risk between Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Established in 1996, Kuwait Invest Holding owns several leading companies on the Kuwait Stock Market and holds investments in Dubai and South Africa, and owns 51% of Gulf Financial Brokerage office.