Kingdom Holding to pay its first annual cash dividend

Kingdom Holding to pay its first annual cash dividend

Saudi investment firm Kingdom Holding plans to pay its first annual cash dividend from accumulated retained earnings, amounting to $146.7 million.

December 18, 2010 3:06 by Reuters

Saudi investment firm Kingdom Holding plans to pay its first annual cash dividend from accumulated retained earnings, amounting to 550 million riyals ($146.7 million), it said in a statement on Saturday.

Shares in Kingdom Holding, which are 95 percent owned by its Chairman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, jumped 4 percent in early trading. Shares reached 8.10 riyals by 08:27 GMT.

“The cash dividend represents a payment of 5 percent of capital or 50 Halalas per share to the public shareholders,” the firm said in an emailed statement.

“With a dividend yield of 6.4 percent to the public shareholders based on current market price, this reflects a move in the company’s strategy to start distributing cash back to its shareholders,” it said.

Kingdom Holding made a net profit of 160 million riyals in the third quarter, rising 52.6 percent from the same period a year earlier.

The firm attributed the gain to a better performance of affiliated firms. Kingdom Holding has minority stakes in some of the world’s top companies, the most valuable of which is Citigroup .

In November, Kingdom Holding announced that it subscribed $500 million, along with its chairman Prince Alwaleed, to General Motors’ initial public offering.

(Reporting by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Miral Fahmy)