Twitter stake of Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal worth more than $1bn

Saudi’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal says the value of his stake in Twitter has quadrupled to more than US$1bn despite a 15 per cent stock slidelast week.

The micro-blogging launched its initial public offering last month, raising $1.82bn.

Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) originally invested $300 million in Twitter, accounting for about 3 per cent of the company in December 2011.

When the IPO closed, the value of KHC’s shares soared to $600m.

Twitter’s shares rose by more than 40 per cent in recent weeks. But a downgrade note from a Wall Street analyst sent the stock tumbling last week, wiping away more than $5.2bn in market capitalistion.

“Since the IPO on November 7, Twitter shares are up 62 per cent (versus a 4 per cent gain for the S&P 500). We continue to believe that Twitter as a company has a bright future and many opportunities ahead. However, as a stock, we believe nothing has changed over the last 15 days to justify the rise in valuation,” said Ben Schachter, an analyst at Macquarie Equities Research.

thamid@thenational.ae