Prince Alwaleed & Newscorp Reaffirm Support for Rotana

HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, Chairman of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) and Rotana Group, met with Mr. James Murdoch, Chairman and CEO, News Corporation Europe and Asia, at The Plaza Hotel in New York. The meeting was also attended by a delegation that included Mr. Fahad Alsukait, CEO- Rotana Group, Mr.  Jamal Khashoggi, General Manager of Alarab news channel that is owned by Prince Alwaleed, Ms. Heba Fatani, Senior Executive Manager, Corporate Communications Department (KHC) and Dr. Nahla Alanbar, Private Executive Assistant to HRH the Chairman. The Board members and representatives from News Corporation were Ms. Charlotte Burr, Head of Strategy and Development, Asia Pac, News Corp and Mr. Gary Davy, Executive Vice President Programming- Sky.

Prince Alwaleed and Mr. James Murdoch discussed various issues related to Rotana, Newscorp. and Kingdom Holding Company (KHC). Also during the meeting Prince Alwaleed and Mr. Murdoch reaffirmed their support for Rotana. 

Rotana Group announced that News Corporation has reached an agreement to exercise 50 percent of its previously announced option in Rotana Group, the Middle East media group. Under the terms of the agreement, News Corporation will acquire newly-issued shares in Rotana for $35 million. The investment will take News Corporation’s total stake in Rotana to 14.53 percent. News Corporation retains the right to exercise the remaining 50 percent of the option until November 2012.

In 2010, Prince Alwaleed met with Mr. Rupert Murdoch at the company’s headquarters in New York. In 2009, Rotana and Fox International Channels (FIC), the international television channels arm of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation announced that viewers in the Middle East and North Africa region will have access to more of the world’s best family entertainment after signing a multi-year output deal with The Walt Disney Company – Europe, Middle East and Africa. This collaboration provided a compelling proposition to Rotana’s bouquet of offerings to viewers and the trade community across the Middle East region.

In 2008, Prince Alwaleed and Mr. Rupert Murdoch formed an alliance in the presence of Mr. James Murdoch to bring Fox Movies to the Arab World through a partnership between Rotana and News Corporation. Furthermore in 2008, Mr. James Murdoch visited Riyadh to meet with Prince Alwaleed. During his trip, Mr. James Murdoch visited Rotana offices, various KHC local projects, and the Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG). KHC acquired 29.9% share of SRMG. The publications that fall under SRMG include Asharq Al Awsat, Al Eqtisadiah, Arab News, Hia magazine, Al Majalla magazine, Arrajol magazine and Sayidati magazine. In addition, other entities that fall under SRMG are Al Khaleejiya for Publicity Advertising and Public Relations and Al Madina Printing and Publishing Company. Also during Mr. Murdoch’s visit, Prince Alwaleed hosted a luncheon in his honor at HRH’s Kingdom Resort, and on the following day Prince Alwaleed hosted a dinner in honor of his guest at the desert camp. Moreover, in the same year Prince Alwaleed was received by Mr. Rupert Murdoch at News Corporation company’s headquarters in New York during a business luncheon.

In 2005, HRH announced his support for Murdoch by converting KHC’s non-voting shares to voting shares. HRH has a 5.7% (voting shares) in News Corp. and KHC that is 95% owned by Prince Alwaleed, is the second largest shareholder in News Corp.