Al-Waleed bin Talal

This business tycoon from Saudi Arabia has a sister named Sultana Narul, who is also a stake holder of the ‘Fairmont Hotels and Resorts’hospitality empire. She reportedly owns stakes worth 16% of the total capital.

Bin-Talal first tied the knot with the member of a royal family, named Dalal Bint Saud, but the relationship ended a short while later. The couple had two kids, namely Khalid and Reem. He later got married to a Saudi Arabian princess named Ameera Al Taweel. This relationship too didn’t last too long and ended in November 2013.

Bin-Talal owns super luxurious palaces and hospitality concerns such as ‘Kingdom Resort’, ‘Kingdom Palace’ and ‘Kingdom Oasis’. Apart from these he also owns a yacht named ‘Kingdom 5KR’, which is one of the longest vessels of its kind in the whole world

Al Waleed was born to the Monarch named Prince Talal and his wife Mona Al Solh on 7th of March, 1955, in the middle-eastern city of Jordan.

His father was actively involved in the country’s political affairs and was even appointed its Finance minister. However, he was overthrown from power due to a political turmoil and was forced into exile.

His parents officially parted ways in 1969, through a divorce, after which Waleed resided with his mother at Lebanon. During his younger days, Bin Talal was quite undisciplined and would frequently escape from his residence. He would then end up resting in cars parked on the streets during the nights.

The youngster completed his primary education from a military institution in Riyadh, which he claims instilled discipline in him. Talal later moved to the United States where he pursued his studies at an institution named ‘Menlo College’.

After graduating from ‘Menlo’ in 1979, Talal returned to his home turf to embark on his own business venture. Saudi Arabia’s economy had flourished significantly during the period due to the boom in its oil business.

This state of the nation’s economy immensely helped this young man who ventured into real estate and construction at the time. The idea of initiating his business at the time of the Saudi Arabia’s oil boom helped Al-Waleed strike gold.

He then acquired an underperforming financial institution named ‘United Saudi Commercial Bank’. Later, he merged this bank with other enterprises like ‘Saudi Cairo Bank’ and ‘SAMBA’. The ‘United Saudi Commercial Bank’ went on to become one of the best financial organizations in the whole of Middle East.

Al-Waleed bought a huge chunk of shares of the financial giant ‘Citicorp’ in 1991, a time when the bank was undergoing a great crisis. He later went on to even bail out the renowned organization ‘Citibank’, with an amount of $550 Million. It is believed that the business baron owns stakes worth $1 Billion in the ‘Citigroup’ firm today.

During the year 1997, the popular magazine ‘Time’ had claimed that Al-Waleed owned a stake of 5% in the American media giant ‘News Corporation’.

His stake in ‘Twitter’ had grabbed attention from world over, especially during the year 2011. It was later reported that Waleed’s stake in the firm was approximately $8 Billion.