Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed To Give Away $32 Billion
S audi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has pledged to give away $32 billion over the coming years. There is no time scale set for th...
https://newshelmng.blogspot.com/2015/07/saudi-arabias-prince-alwaleed-to-give.html
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has pledged to give away $32 billion over the coming years.
There
is no time scale set for the donation, which represents all of his
fortune, according to Alwaleed. The billionaire is the world’s 20th
richest person with $30.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg
Billionaires Index.
The
gift would benefit Muslim and non-Muslim countries, Alwaleed said in a
press conference in Riyadh today. It would be used for work in areas
including inter-cultural understanding, disease eradication, providing
power to remote areas, building orphanages and schools, disaster relief
and empowering women, he said.
Since Bill Gates and Warren Buffett announced the Giving Pledge in 2010, about 200 individuals from around the world have promised to give away more than half of their fortune
in life or death. Gates and Buffett are leading by example. The two
richest Americans, who are worth $151 billion combined, according to the
Bloomberg Billionaires Index, have put more than $46 billion into the
Gates foundation.
The
Prince hoped the gift would build a “better world of tolerance,
acceptance, equality and opportunity for all,” he said in a statement.
Gates Support
Alwaleed
is the richest person is Saudi Arabia and his wealth has risen by $3.4
billion, or 12.7 percent, this year, according to the Bloomberg
Billionaires Index.
He said
in his statement that he has already donated $3.5 billion to his
philanthropy unit, which has been working with The Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation and The Carter Center to strengthen health care and
control epidemics. Alwaleed spoke to Bill Gates yesterday, who was
supportive of the giveaway, the Prince said.
The
pledge will not impact any of the investments or future projects of
Kingdom Holding Co., the Prince’s primary investment vehicle, he said.
Alwaleed owns 95 percent of Kingdom, the investment company through
which he holds stakes in Citigroup Inc. and Twitter Inc. It sold off a stake valued at almost $190 million in News Corp. in February, reducing its holding in Rupert Murdoch’s media company to about 1 percent.
French state-controlled investment bank CDC is leading a group of companies that willinvest at least $150 million in Kingdom Holding, the Riyadh-based company said on Friday.
Culled from Bloomberg.com