Leda Systems organizes ICT Career Fair
Leda Systems Ltd., an ICT, firm is organizing an ICT Career Fair in Accra, under the theme; “ICT in Socio-economic Development & the way Forward.”
The event at the British Council Hall Tuesday September 1, 2009 at 9:00am is designed to present the diverse career and business opportunities in ICT to organizations, young entrepreneurs, school leavers and the general public.
The guest speaker for the event is the Minister of Communications, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu.
Other speakers are Mr. Edward Danso, an entrepreneur, Mr. Albert Ocran of Combert Impressions, an IT Consultant, Mr. C. K. Bruce and Mr. Gabriel Canacoo also an IT Consultant.
Some of the topics to be discussed include Financial Freedom and Identity Access Management.
Rate for the seminar is GH¢20. Certificates will be awarded to participants.
Interested individuals and organizations can call 020 7211117 and 0244659324 for enquiries.
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Gulf states target Ghana farmlands
Farmlands in Ghana are coming under increasing pressure as various interest groups from across the globe are vying for parcels.
There are unresolved questions of conflict between multinationals grabbing lands from poor farmers, mostly women for the cultivation of biofuels, particularly Jatropha, and now news from the Gulf region says countries in the region are targeting farmlands in African countries including Ghana for their food security plans. But what is disturbing is the fact that they are covert about the move.
The countries being targeted are Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Angola, Sudan and Ghana.
A story in the Gulf Times sited by ghanabusinessnews.com says a consultant advising governments in the region on the deals has told them if they continued with the plan, they risk tarnishing their reputation, especially as there is no transparency.
The report indicates that Gulf countries depend heavily on food imports and following spikes in basic commodity prices, they have decided to buy land in developing countries to ensure food security in the region.
The consultant, Huma Fakhar was quoted by the publication as saying that, “the media has really managed to put a negative spin on these farmland deals, that’s why we are seeing many Gulf countries being less open about them.”
“I am personally aware of serious talks between Saudi Arabia and Ghana about buying farmland,” she said.
Fakhar is chairperson of the Market @ccess Promotion, an international consultancy advising Gulf states on agricultural issues.
“… Since the deals started getting a bad reputation, the owners of the companies no longer disclose their identity,” she added.
The story of land ownership in Ghana is a bleak one. Land issues have led to violent clashes resulting in deaths, displacements and insecurity.
The country’s courts are inundated with hundreds of unresolved land related cases, some lasting more than 30 years. This new development should therefore be worrying, especially so, when the farmlands would be used to produce food crops solely for the Gulf region.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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Ghana is biggest of Tullow Oil’s 60% oil production in Africa
Aidan Heavey - Tullow Oil CEO
Ghana holds the biggest of Tullow’s oil production in Africa as the continent is cited as the place to watch for the next global oil boom. 60% of Tullow Oil’s production comes from the continent.
The CEO of Tullow Oil says therefore, the future of the global oil industry lies in Africa.
Aidan Heavey told the Telegraph, a UK publication, “we love working in Africa. It’s where we see the major growth and where the future of the business will be. Africa is one of the great unexplored areas.”
The publication indicates that over the past year, Tullow has more than doubled its stock market value to £8.7bn, tripled its global workforce to 850, including 400 in the UK and climbed to 32nd in the FTSE 100 index.
All these developments it says is caused by African oil. With assets in 15 African nations from Mauritania to Madagascar, Tullow now gets 60% of its production from the continent. The rest is mostly North Sea gas, but Africa accounts for 94% of group reserves.
“But the phenomenal success that we have had in the last five years has been organic growth and Ghana has been the biggest part of that,” Heavey says.
Adding it is ground-breaking because the oil lies not in a river delta, as has previously been the case with west African discoveries, but in deep coastal waters where it is thought to owe its presence to continental shift.
That means, he says, that Jubilee’s properties could be repeated not only all the way up Africa’s west coast to Senegal but also across the Atlantic Ocean to Guyana, Surinam and French Guiana in South America, on the other side of the continental shift pattern.
Tullow Oil owns 38% in Ghana’s Jubilee oil field, reputed to be the largest to be discovered in West Africa in the last 10 to 15 years. The other partners are US companies Kosmos Energy – 30% and Anadarko Petroleum, 22% and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) which has 10%.
According to Tullow Oil, the Jubilee oil field has about 1.8 billion barrels of oil and has 17 wells.
Commercial production in the field is expected to start in June 2010.
And Dr Kwabena Donkor, Ghana’s deputy Minister of Energy had said that under Phase One of the Jubilee Field project, 120,000 barrels of oil and 120,000 million standard cubic feet of dry gas per day would be produced in 2010.
Production would be increased to 240,000 barrels of oil and 240,000 million standard cubic feet of gas per day under the second phase of the Jubilee Field project which is expected to commence in 2013.
According to him, “the appraisals so far conducted indicate that the Jubilee Field contains expected recoverable reserves of about 800 million barrels of light crude, with an upside potential of about three billion barrels”.
Tullow Oil has a promising development in Uganda, where it reckons it has found a resource of 700m barrels and is in talks about selling part of the action to a production partner.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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Bodies of two stowaways found in Durban Harbour
The bodies of two boys who stowed away on a container ship but later went missing were recovered from the ship in Durban Harbour on Sunday.
Their cousins, two teenage brothers who were found on board the container ship last Wednesday, are recovering in hospital.
The brothers were discovered by the crew of the Northern Faith when they heard knocking on the hull of the ship, which was anchored off Virginia.
The four boys, thought to be Tanzanian, had hidden in the ship’s rudder housing for nine days. The rescued brothers told the police that their cousins had gone missing in strong winds the day before they were rescued.
Police Superintendent Vincent Mdunge said that the search and rescue unit had recovered bodies from the ship on Sunday.
“The two bodies are confirmed to be the cousins,” he said. “They were found squashed inside the rudder housing. They have been taken to the government mortuary, and there will be consultation between the Tanzanian embassy and the next of kin will be alerted. These processes will be conducted through Interpol.”
A source at Durban’s Life Entabeni Hospital said the brothers, who were at the hospital recovering from their ordeal, were “doing well at the moment”.
They would be transferred to Westville police station today, the source said, adding that the hospital had initially been informed that the boys were from Ghana but “the story changes all the time”.
However, Mdunge said police officers had confirmed that the boys were Tanzanian. Their fate would be decided once the authorities had taken into consideration the circumstances in which the boys had come to the country. If it was found that a crime had been committed, they would be taken to prison before being deported to their country.
Another source said that the Northern Faith’s crew and captain had shown “goodwill” to the boys when they had been found and lifted to the deck.
“The boys were put in a cabin, given hot tea and food, and covered in blankets,” the source said.
“The police arrived at the ship and found that conditions were not good to transfer them to their launch. They said they would fetch the boys the next day, but the captain, of his own volition, arranged for the police to use the ship’s crane to lower the stowaways to their boat. They have been incredibly good to them.”
Source: The Mercury
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Civil Servants urged to handle funds according to rules
Mr. Paul Evans Aidoo, Western Regional Minister has urged heads of departments and institutions to handle public funds judiciously in accordance with rules and regulations governing them.
“Finances are the lifeblood of any institution and it should be the duty and concern of all who handle it, to use it wisely,” he said.
These were contained in a speech read for him at a Public Financial Management Workshop, organised by the Audit Service at Takoradi on Friday.
He said government is determined to ensure that there is transparency and accountability and that financial transaction are done within the right regulatory framework.
“We shall continue to pursue these objectives until the tax-payer gets his money’s worth,” he stated.
Mr. Aidoo urged the representative of the assemblies to assess their existing budget preparation and revenue handlings within the context of the issues that would be considered, to improve upon their performance.
He said the representatives of the decentralized departments must pay attention to record keeping and reporting, that would make the eventual national financial reporting mechanisms and outputs sound and reliable.
“Oil has been found in this Region and drilling is set to begin at the latter part of 2010,” he stated.
Mr. Aidoo expressed the view that, the Public Financial Management processes should make it possible for the rest of the population to have faith in things that were being handled for the common good and not for personal gain.
He said overdrawn public institution accounts, that results in the rejection of cheques and the impression being created that government does not have funds to pay for services should be avoided.
Mr Seth A. Botchwey, of the Budget Division of the Ministry of Finance, said challenges facing the Audit Services were improper and inadequate input package, poor cash requirement forecast, and misdirection of most earmarked resources for specific activities during programme implementation.
He urged participants to improve budget implementation by developing work plans and reviewing it regularly.
Mr. Botchwey again advised the auditors to involve the assemblies during implementation of budget, enhance the supervisory capacity of the assemblies, and strengthen yearly monitoring.
Source: GNA
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SSNIT Informal Sector Fund introduced in Hohoe
Mr Kwasi Boatin, Director-General of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) on Friday said its subsidiary Informal Sector Scheme has the potential to facilitate the development efforts of government due to its capacity for enormous savings mobilization.
He said pension funds play significant role in the development of financial markets and could serve as sources of business and development capital.
Mr Boatin disclosed this at the inauguration of the Hohoe Contact Office of the SSNIT Informal Sector Fund, first of a kind in the Volta Region.
He said the Fund is therefore envisioned to become the leader in the provision of social protection schemes for business entities in the informal sector through innovative product designs and excellent customer care.
Mr Boatin said the Fund was established following a study recommendation to expand the social security coverage of an estimated 85 percent of the economically active population that were not being served under the SSNIT Pension Scheme.
Nana Fredua Agyeman Pambuo I, Chairman of the Executive Council of SSNIT Informal Sector Fund said the Fund was setting up the necessary infrastructure and systems to facilitate its business processes, and explore an avenue for an estimated nine million prospective clients to grow the size of the Fund.
Nana Pambuo said the Fund would work harmoniously with all relevant state and regulatory agencies to ensure successful implementation of the scheme.
He was optimistic that the SSNIT Informal Sector Pension Scheme would provide unique opportunities for all workers to save toward a happy life in retirement.
Colonel (rtd) Cyril Necku, Deputy Volta Regional Minister said government had demonstrated enough commitment towards the implementation of a three-tier National Pension Scheme.
He said following from the passage of the National Pensions Law (ACT 766), a national pension regulatory authority to oversee the administration and management of registered schemes has been earnestly completed.
Col Necku however urged management of the Fund to work hard, make prudent investments and pay benefits promptly, to earn the confidence of contributors to increase membership.
Dr Francis Sapara-Grant, Managing Director of the Fund said the Fund currently operates through four branch offices and 11 contact outlets in six regions with a total membership of 40,000 as of July 2009, hoping to expand to the rest of the regions to give it a national character.
He said the Hohoe Contact Office, within three weeks has registered over 300 new clients and collected contributions in excess of GH¢ 2,000.
Dr Sapara-Grant said the Fund’s benefits include old age retirement pension, lump sum, disability, survivor’s benefit, with the capacity of members to use their occupational scheme account as collateral to secure credit from approved financial institutions.
Mr Victor-Hermann, Hohoe Municipal Chief Executive, who presided, said failure to cultivate the culture of savings on earnings compounded the vulnerability of the worker, particularly in the informal sector at pension.
He called for vigorous educational regimes to create the necessary awareness to serve as the pull factor.
Source: GNA
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Local assembly increases revenue
The Mpohor Wassa East District Assembly (MWEDA) has collected GH¢ 322,152.00 out of the budgeted target of GH¢ 2,268,81.00.
He said though the figure was not enough, it was impressive and would motivate revenue collectors and other stakeholders to improve on their revenue generation activities.
Mr Anthony Bassaw, District Chief Executive MWEDA, said the assembly also disbursed a total of GH¢ 8,000.00 to the area councils, to enable them to perform their core function of local governance.
“The considerably improvement in revenue mobilisation notwithstanding, the assembly had performed poorly in other sectors of development and this is the reason we have to focus on poverty reduction programmes aimed at harnessing the potential of our people,” he said when he addressed the second ordinary meeting of the assembly at Daboase on Thursday.
He noted that the assembly was also putting in place strategies to make the sub-structures function more effectively, and to begin this, provision has been made for the completion of old projects as well as initiating new ones like the construction of the Ateiku clinic, new Subri market among others.
The DCE revealed that the assembly had also embarked on sensitization programmes aimed at proper planning and construction of houses.
The services of the Hydro Unit of the Architectural Engineering Services Limited (AESL) had been sought to assess the drainage situation and offer the district technical assistance, he said.
Mr Bassaw expressed concern about the activities of illegal miners along the river Pra, which was the only source of drinking water for the people in Sekondi-Takoradi, adding that, “the level of illegal chainsaw operations within some forest reserves in the district are also of major concern”.
He said the district security and Regional Co-ordinating Council would continue to carry out periodic checks, aimed at halting the activities of these illegal entities and preserve water sources and save the environment from further destruction.
“Mr. Bassaw appealed to traditional authorities to join the crusade to eliminate galamsey and illegal chainsaw activities in the district”.
Mr. Kwamena Boakye, Assemblyman for Dompim No. 1 in his contribution to the proceedings of the assembly, called for the re-introduction of the five per cent statutory allocation from the Common Fund for the administration of the sub-structures within the district assembly concept.
He noted that scrapping the figure off had hampered the work of the Urban, Zonal and Area Councils, as well as the Unit Committees who depended on the amount for its day-to-day running.
Mr Boakye noted, “If government indeed wants to ensure the effective running of the decentralisation process, then he should maintain it as a matter of urgency, adding, these are the things that make the assembly work effectively”.
Source: GNA
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Japan stocks to rise on opposition victory
Japanese bonds will decline while stocks rise after Japan’s opposition Democratic Party of Japan swept to power, said Yuuki Sakurai, chief executive officer of Fukoku Capital Management Inc.
The DPJ won at least 268 of 480 seats to secure a majority in Japan’s lower house, public broadcaster NHK projected. The party may almost triple its seats to more than 300, NHK and Fuji Television reported earlier. Stocks will rise on optimism DPJ policies to stimulate domestic demand will boost growth, while financing for those measures will result in further bond issuance, sending prices down, Tokyo-based Sakurai said.
Ten-year government bond yields will probably rise to 1.7 percent by year-end, while the Nikkei 225 Stock Average will advance to as high as 12,000, according to the investor.
“It’s a landslide victory for the DPJ and the equity market may remain excited for a couple of days or even a couple of weeks,” said Sakurai, who helps manage about 800 billion yen ($8.6 billion) in assets. Financing for the party’s spending plans “will have to come from government bonds,” he said.
The DPJ faces accelerating deflation and record unemployment as it seeks to craft an economic recovery in a nation that only last quarter emerged from its deepest postwar recession. Japan’s consumer prices fell at an unprecedented 2.2 percent in July from a year earlier, while the jobless rate climbed to 5.7 percent, the statistics bureau said Aug. 28.
Prime Minister Taro Aso’s Liberal Democratic Party lost about two-thirds of its 303 legislators in the chamber that chooses the premier. The LDP ruled Japan for all but 10 months since 1955.
Debt Issuance
The Nikkei 225 surged 25 percent through the remaining year after the last general election in 2005. Bonds fell for six straight weeks, the longest stretch in more than a year. A similar result may emerge as the DPJ carries out plans to boost consumption, according to investors and strategists.
Bond investors are concerned the new government will increase new issues to finance fiscal measures pledged by the DPJ, adding to public debt that is already almost double the size of Japan’s $4.9 trillion gross domestic product.
Debt maturing in more than 10 years handed investors a loss of 2.9 percent this year, according to indexes compiled by Merrill Lynch & Co. Ten-year yields increased one basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, to 1.31 percent on Aug. 28.
Shares of companies that rely on domestic spending may benefit as the DPJ focuses on stimulating consumption. The Nikkei 225 rose 0.6 percent on Aug. 28 to 10,534.14. The index has gained 19 percent this year, rebounding from last year’s record 42 percent plunge during the global financial crisis.
‘Stabilizing’ Politics
“Stocks will rise as foreign investors regard the stabilizing political situation as a positive,” said Hidenori Suezawa, Tokyo-based chief strategist at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co., a unit of Japan’s second-largest brokerage.
Japan’s economy, the world’s second largest, grew at an annual 3.7 percent pace last quarter, the first expansion in more than a year, as more than $2 trillion in stimulus plans worldwide helped revive trade.
Aso pledged 25 trillion yen in government spending to combat the recession. Economists expect growth will weaken in coming quarters once government cash injections are exhausted.
Japanese companies forecast the yen, which last traded at 93.60 against the dollar on Aug. 28, may average 94.85 in the 12 months to March 2010, according to the Bank of Japan’s quarterly Tankan survey released July 1. The average of the 10 most recent analyst forecasts is for the yen to end the year at 97.3, and finish March at 99.4, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
‘Good Strength’
The yen is likely to benefit from the DPJ’s pledge to give the Bank of Japan more autonomy, increasing the scope for the central bank to raise interest rates earlier. JPMorgan Chase & Co. overnight interest-rate swaps signal a 19 percent chance borrowing costs will be lifted by the end of July.
“The yen is going to rise,” said Kazuaki Oh’e, a bond salesman in Tokyo at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the nation’s fifth-biggest bank. “You may think this fact would hurt Japanese exporters, but this economic expansion is mostly on the domestic side. So this stronger yen won’t hurt as much as before. It’s a good strength.”
Source: Bloomberg
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The seven most overrated businesses
With roughly 6.7 million jobs lost since the start of the recession, it’s tempting – and often a great idea – to launch your own business. That way, of course, you can take matters into your own hands. No more rolling your eyes at the boss; it’s your show.
But many people do a lousy job of picking businesses they can realistically turn into a profitable operation.
“There’s this very sad pattern about how people start businesses,” says Scott Shane, an entrepreneurship professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. “People are most likely to start businesses in industries where start-ups are most likely to fail.”
The problem: Many would-be entrepreneurs are drawn to businesses they like to patronize or the ones that are cheapest and easiest to start. Instead, experts argue, aspiring entrepreneurs should create firms in which they have professional experience so they have a competitive advantage in the market.
So, what are most overrated businesses out there? We spoke with small business experts to find out. Here are seven you might want to think twice about – and then maybe twice more.
1. Restaurants. Dining out and cooking are among Americans’ favorite pastimes. But “restaurants are among the toughest businesses to run,” says Donna Ettenson, vice president of the Association of Small Business Development Centers in Burke, Va.
Far too many people assume their culinary abilities will lead to success in the restaurant business. Instead, about 60% of restaurants close in the first three years, according to a 2003 study at Ohio State University. That’s quite a bit higher than the roughly half of all start-ups that close in the first five years.
The reason: Restaurants typically have low profit margins and need strong managers who can run an ultra-tight ship through seasonal fluctuations and other struggles. Most people don’t have that kind of intense managerial ability to pull it off. By the way, the pitfalls are quite similar for restaurants’ cousin – the catering business. In other words, Chef Emptor.
2. Direct Sales. It’s a tempting pitch: Work from home and earn commissions by selling cosmetics, kitchen knives or cleaning products. But companies that recruit independent sales reps tend to attract new team members by pointing to the success of their highest earners.
A harder look shows that those high earners are making big money in large part by recruiting new reps into the organization and getting bonuses or a cut of their recruits’ commissions, says Ken Yancey, chief executive of SCORE, a Herndon, Va., organization of current and retired business executives who volunteer time counseling entrepreneurs. The new reps then have a much harder job because they need to recruit more people on top of selling product even though the number of reps out there is increasing.
The result, Yancey says: “Most of them wind up with a bunch of jewelry or kitchen equipment sitting in their basement that they can’t sell.”
3. Online Retail. By far, one of the easiest businesses to start is selling items through online marketplaces such as eBay or Amazon. But as online commerce ages and these sites fill up with more established retailers, it’s much harder for new, small sellers to compete for attention and generate a viable income.
“A lot of people are thinking it’s the Web of five or 10 years ago and you stand out simply because you’re on the Web,” says Rieva Lesonsky, chief executive of GrowBiz Media, a content and consulting company for small businesses based in Irvine, Calif.
Instead, successful online retailers today must have a handle on sourcing their products at a low enough price, then layering on clever online marketing and fine-tuned logistics. These businesses won’t generate much income if they can’t be easily found in searches, maintain a good reputation among buyers or add enough value so that sellers can build profit margins high enough to take on bigger players and physical stores.
4. High-End Retail. Many people dream of opening a day spa, luxury jewelry store or designer clothing boutique – businesses they feel good patronizing. But specialty retail businesses close at higher rates than non-specialty stores, according to the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, and are even riskier now that consumer discretionary spending has dried up and people are no longer spending money on little luxuries.
“It’s going to be a long time before we return to the days of conspicuous consumption,” says Ms. Lesonsky of GrowBiz Media. High-end retailers often suffer from poor locations and lack of understanding of how to source and market their products in an effective way. In today’s economy and in coming years, she says, retail entrepreneurs should be looking to sell non-discretionary consumer goods or offer items at a value rather than high-end products.
5. Independent Consulting. Common advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to stick with industries they know. So, for many looking to escape the corporate treadmill that means turning their professional expertise into a one-person consulting firm.
It seems practical – more companies are indeed relying on independent contractors and freelancers these days – but it’s not as easy to pull off as many imagine, says Dennis Ceru, an entrepreneurship professor at Babson College in Babson Park, Mass. Many consultants struggle with time management problems, spending so much time scouting work that it’s very difficult to earn steady income. “The difficulty many face is they go through peaks and valleys of having work,” says Prof. Ceru. “When the engagement ends, they are frantically looking for work,” which may take weeks or months.
A possible solution: “A successful consulting firm needs people to find the work, grind out the work and mind the work. Unless you know you can do all three yourself, you potentially expose your business to great risk.”
6. Franchise Ownership. The idea of being handed a proven business plan without the uncertainties and headaches that come with building a business from scratch is understandably alluring. But too many people don’t understand the risks associated with franchising and sign restrictive franchise agreements without thoroughly researching their franchisor and their contractual obligations, says SCORE’s Yancey.
Some franchisors, for instance, allow franchisees to open stores too close together, oversaturating the market. Or they simply require their franchisees pay so much in royalties and fees or other operational costs that it’s very difficult to be profitable. Beyond that, when a franchisee fails, a franchisor may make it extremely difficult and costly to get out of its contract.
It’s a myth that franchises are far more successful than independent businesses. A 1995 study by a researcher at Wayne State University found that 62% of franchises were open for business after four years, compared with 68% of independent businesses. And franchises were also found to be less profitable in those early years.
7. Traffic-Driven Web Sites. Everybody has witnessed the success of social-networking sites like Facebook and popular blogs that generate all their revenue off advertising. But as the Internet ages, that’s much harder to accomplish, says Martin Zwilling, a start-up consultant in Fountain Hills, Ariz., who specializes in helping entrepreneurs find angel investors.
Zwilling says he hears pitches for new social-networking sites about once a week, but actively deters people from starting them. “I say, skip it,” he says. “You need to invest $50 million to get any presence” in the social-networking space right now and it’s very difficult to get people to leave established sites. What’s more, he says, the amount of traffic needed to build a lucrative traffic-driven Web site is far more than most new Web entrepreneurs realize: “Until you get to the point where you have a million page views a day, you’re nowhere.”
Credit: Kelly K. Spors & Kevin Salwen
Source: Yahoo Business
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Prince Alwaleed is Saudi Arabia’s richest man
Prince Alwaleed
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Citigroup Inc.’s largest individual investor, was ranked the richest Saudi national by Arabian Business, even after losing 4.6 percent of his personal wealth in the past year.
Alwaleed’s assets are valued at $16.3 billion, compared with $17.1 billion last year, the Dubai-based magazine said yesterday in its 2009 Saudi Rich List, citing the accounts of Kingdom Holding Co., the prince’s investment company.
The global credit crisis, lower oil prices and a decline in demand for crude have hurt investment and energy companies operating in Saudi Arabia. Kingdom Holding’s second-quarter profit slumped 83 percent as returns on Alwaleed’s investments in stock markets and hotels fell.
“Today, some of his more ambitious investments are showing the strain of the global economic slowdown,” Arabian Business said. “The depreciation in value of his 5 percent stake in Citigroup, for example, has been well-documented.”
Citigroup lost 73 percent of its value in the past 12 months as investment losses eroded its capital.
Alwaleed, nephew of the late King Fahd bin Abdulaziz al- Saud, stands out among more than 2,000 Saudi princes because he has made money. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Menlo College near San Francisco, he returned to the Persian Gulf and parlayed an inheritance of less than $1 million into a billion- dollar fortune in the 1980s, mostly through real-estate investments, according to Riz Khan’s biography “Alwaleed: Businessman, Billionaire, Prince”(William Morrow, 2005).
Apple, Time Warner
The prince, 54, built his fortune by investing in brand- name companies he considered undervalued, including Apple Inc., News Corp. and Time Warner Inc. Forbes magazine estimated he was worth $13.3 billion in March, ranking him 22nd among the world’s billionaires.
This year, Alwaleed’s investments haven’t kept pace with the Saudi benchmark. Shares of Riyadh-based Kingdom Holding have declined 4.3 percent. The Tadawul All-Share Index, the largest market in the Middle East by market value, has gained 19 percent.
Kingdom Holding’s assets are valued at $7.26 billion, while the Prince owns $3.18 billion of real estate and $1.56 billion of media assets such as LBC and Rotana Holding, Arabian Business said, citing his financial accounts. Alwaleed’s other major assets, including an Airbus A380, are valued at $1.7 billion.
The value of the prince’s cash remains confidential, the magazine said, adding that “we are assured it has not changed significantly since we were allowed to see the verified total figure in December.”
Source: Bloomberg
