Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed has bought more than $1 billion worth of shares in Citigroup, AOL Time Warner and Priceline.com over the past six months, his company said on Monday.
The prince, among the world"s wealthiest men, bought $500 million in Citigroup, $450 million in AOL Time Warner and $100 million in Priceline.com. With around $10 billion in Citigroup, Alwaleed was already the biggest shareholder in the bank.
"At about $43, Citi"s share price was at too attractive a price," the prince said in a statement issued by his company Kingdom Holdings. The prince also found AOL Time Warner price attractive at $23 a share.
"I believe in the power of the AOL brand and I am already a shareholder in this global media giant. Therefore when the price reached a lucrative level, we decided to increase our stake," the prince said, without giving exact figures on his AOL holdings.
His holdings in Internet commerce company Priceline.com currently stand at 5.4 percent, he added.
Alwaleed, a nephew of Saudi Arabia"s King Fahd, has a personal fortune estimated at $20 billion, the bulk of which is invested in the United States.