Craving for success. How the arrested prince al-Waleed bin Talal tried to influence his place in the Forbes list

The wealth of the cosmopolitan investor, the nephew of the Saudi king, increased by $6.1 billion last year. Two-thirds of his capital is a 95% stake in the Kingdom Holding Company investment fund. In the five weeks leading up to the cutoff date (based on which capitalization is calculated for the Forbes rating), the company's shares have risen in price by 49%. Al-Waleed and Kingdom Holding Company own 3.5% of Citigroup, as well as large stakes in the Four Seasons and Fairmont hotel chains. In February, News Corp. acquired 9% of Al-Waleed's media company Rotana, valued at $770 million. His palaces and properties are worth more than $3 billion. He owns a jewelry collection worth $730 million and four aircraft, including an Airbus A380.

Al-Waleed ibn Talal - Member royal family Saudi Arabia. He is the son of Prince Talal, whose parents were the founder of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz Alsaud and Princess Mona El Sol.

Al-Waleed ibn Talal received his education in the USA, first with a bachelor's degree in business management, then - a doctor of science and a doctor of law. His property is the investment empire Kingdom Holding Company. He owns the largest stakes in many famous companies. Among them are Worldcom, Motorola, AOL, Apple, etc. The prince's interests also include real estate. These are stakes in hotels in New York, Monaco and London, as well as a chain of entertainment complexes in France. His work schedule allows him to sleep only five hours a day. It is said about him that despite being related to the ruling king, Alwaleed Alsaud tries not to get involved in politics.

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal is actively involved in philanthropy, among other things, annually donates more than one hundred million dollars to organizations in the Middle East, Asia and Africa that deal with the needs of the needy. He organizes educational centers in the Middle East for American students, and in the USA for Islamic students. Donated twenty million dollars to the Louvre two years ago to build a new wing dedicated to Islamic art. In the same year, the prince transferred twenty million dollars American universities at Harvard and Georgetown. This donation is among the 25 largest at Harvard and the second largest for Georgetown. The university administration said that these charitable contributions will be used to improve curricula, as well as to expand the faculty in this area.

Prince Alwaleed promotes equal rights for women, the first in the country to hire a woman as an aircraft pilot.

Prince Al-Waleed ibn Talal

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal is the nephew of the current king of Saudi Arabia. He earned his fortune on investments, he owns the Kingdom Holding Company. Through this company, he carries out all his investments. The prince began to engage in investments, which later brought him fabulous money, back in the late seventies, taking a loan of three hundred thousand dollars. He is one of the richest people in the world.

He is said to sleep five hours a night, that's how long it takes to control investments. He owns large stakes in AOL, Apple Computers, Worldcom, Motorola, News Corporation Ltd, etc. In 1990, Al-Waleed ibn Talal acquired a controlling stake in Citicorp, which at that time was going through hard times. Now the shares owned by the prince are worth ten billion dollars.

He spends a lot on charity. After the terrible tragedy on September 11, he offered New York a donation of ten million dollars. The proposal was rejected by the mayor of the city. In 2002, Prince Alwaleed donated half a million dollars to the Bush Senior School Scholarship Fund. In December of the same year, he donated twenty-seven million dollars to the government of Saudi Arabia to pay the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. After the earthquake in Kashmir in 2005, he donated goods and funds in the amount of 5.3 million US dollars to support and restore goods and funds. Among other things, he is going to sell five percent of his Kingdom Holding Company to the public. The company's value is estimated at 17.6 billion dollars. The shares will be offered at $2.73 each. If the shares are in demand, the offer can be expanded to fifteen percent of the company's shares.

According to Al-Walid ibn Talal, issues of tolerance and understanding between East and West are among the most important in the modern world. He builds bridges between the Western and Islamic communities, organizes educational centers for American students at universities in the Middle East and for Islamic students in the United States.

The prince likes to spend money on beautiful and expensive things. He has luxurious cars, and usually he buys them in two copies: one for himself, and exactly the same for his bodyguards.

Although Prince Al-Waleed ibn Talal usually did not interfere in politics, in recent times he began to make critical statements about excessive traditionalism in Saudi Arabia, promoting free elections and equal rights for women.

Prince Al-Waleed on his 83-day imprisonment

One of the richest men in the world talks about his capture by the Saudi Arabian government.

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has repeatedly failed to become the richest investor in the Middle East and one of the most recognizable faces of Saudi Arabia. In the 1980s, he went bankrupt, and during financial crisis Lost billions of dollars in 2008 to Citigroup Inc. But nothing compares to the humiliation he has endured over the past few months. Last November, Al-Waleed's uncle, King Salman, and his cousin, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, staged a government crackdown on alleged fraudsters, embezzlers and money launderers, resulting in Al-Waleed being detained and locked up for 83 days in what became the infamous Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh.

I saw Al-Waleed at the end of October, a week before he became a government prisoner. We spent the evening at his desert camp talking about financial markets and US politics, watching a football game on TV, walking on the sands, and eating late dinners in the cool midnight air. I returned to the kingdom in mid-March, seven weeks after its release. Al-Waleed decided to break his silence and give an interview to Bloomberg Television.

The day before the interview, we had an informal meeting at his palace in Riyadh. I waited in the foyer, and the prince came down the grand staircase from the second floor. He was dressed simply: beige taub, brown blazer and sandals - and seemed relaxed. For the next two hours, he talked about his "ordeals" while drinking Arabic coffee and ginger tea, while his five grandchildren sang and danced in the palace gym to hot n cold Katy Perry.

Early in the morning of November 4, Al-Walid, who had arrived at his camp for the weekend, received a phone call asking him to appear at the royal court. He left immediately, unaware of the trap. Before long, sensational details of the anti-corruption purge were revealed, and the news broadcasts were teeming with reports that among the hundreds of tycoons, government ministers, and other princes detained at the Ritz-Carlton, Al-Waleed was the most prominent. In three days, shares of his main company, Kingdom Holding Co. , fell by 21 percent.

Al-Waleed has been a boon for a government that wants to show its people that no Saudi can escape responsibility in the fight against parasites and bribery: with a net worth of $17.1 billion, he ranks 65th in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. And his international significance, forged through friendships and business partnerships with Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and others like them, is not inferior to the importance of Prince Mohammed. Kingdom Holding's portfolio includes Four Seasons hotels and resorts, as well as Citigroup, Eurodisney, and Twitter. And the Rotana Group, which he controls separately, is the largest entertainment company in the Arab world.

The government put the question point-blank: pay off, sign a guilty plea and go free, or refuse and languish in captivity. According to the Wall Street Journal, the price of Al-Waleed's release was six billion dollars. The negotiations were held in secret, and the government made no accusations or presented any evidence. Critics said the captives were being denied due process and accused Prince Mohammed of running a campaign of intimidation and extortion under the guise of fighting corruption.

Context

When the princes were locked up at the Ritz

Rumors began to surface of ill-treatment and even torture at the Ritz-Carlton, which quickly made it to the Daily Mail Online and regional media. So when at the end of January, still in the hotel, the prince appeared in a smartphone video, exhausted and tired after two and a half months of imprisonment, speculation only intensified. He declared that he was being treated decently, but no one believed this. (More recently, The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, reported that some detainees were physically assaulted and otherwise forced to confess, and one of the military officers in custody died with all signs of a severe beating.)

Since his release, Al-Waleed has put on some weight and seems to me as energetic, lively and busy as ever. But from the conversation it becomes clear that he is trying his best to cope with what happened. Even if he is innocent - and he insists he is - the government has placed him on the same footing as a group of swindlers. And any complaint can cause anger, which he already directly encountered.

We conducted the interview at a makeshift site in Al-Waleed's apartment on the 67th floor of the Kingdom skyscraper in Riyadh. As I went inside, I thought about how open he could be with me. Will he talk about his life at the Ritz-Carlton? Does the fact acknowledge any harm done to him? Did he have to make a deal with the devil to get his release? Can you trust his words? What if the government threatened him? Can I talk about it?

Below are excerpts from our conversation, which had to be slightly edited for clarity.

Let's start with the obvious: why?

Al-Waleed's detention was mysterious compared to the rest. Of all the arrested princes, he is the only one who has never served in the government of Saudi Arabia, where "kickbacks" are considered commonplace. And unlike other businessmen, he was not a government contractor, and therefore he could not overestimate tariffs. He made most of his wealth transparently in real estate and as an investor in the open markets.

Eric Shatzker: First question: why were you arrested?

Prince Al Waleed: I wouldn't use that word because we were first invited to the palace and then asked to drive to the Ritz-Carlton. Everything was done with honor and dignity, and in relation to everyone, not just me.

Does this mean that the word "arrest" is fair to use only in relation to those who committed a crime and pleaded guilty?

Exactly. And reached an agreement with the government. But in my case, as you know, the situation is quite different.

So there were no charges? Have you been accused of anything at all?

There were no charges. Since I have a fiduciary responsibility to my shareholders in Kingdom Holding, my friends in Saudi Arabia and the entire global community, and in view of our worldwide investments, it is very important to say that there is no blame or blame.

You dubbed your ordeals a misunderstanding. What was it connected with?

I say "misunderstanding" because I don't think I should have been there. Now that everything is behind me, I would say that all suspicions have been removed from me. However, I must say that we have indeed reached a full understanding with the government.

What does it mean?

This is confidential information and I can't talk about it. But there is an understanding between me and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Does it require some action from you?

Not necessary. Again, I can not expand on this, because the information is secret and concerns only me and the government. But be sure: it does not constrain me in any way.

What did the government want from you?

I will not go into the details of the discussions that took place between me and government representatives.

They must have wanted something.

I read in the press that they allegedly wanted to snatch a piece from me. But these are all rumors.

According to one report, it was about six billion dollars.

I have read about six billion, as well as more and less.

What did your freedom cost you? Weren't you asked to pay the government some money, give up some holdings, or give up some shares?

You must respect the confidential agreement reached between me and the government of Saudi Arabia based on a proven understanding.

I am a citizen of Saudi Arabia. And also a member of the royal family. The King is my uncle and Mohammed bin Salman is my cousin. I am interested in maintaining and keeping our relationship secret.

You maintain your innocence and say you didn't sign any plea agreement.

We have indeed signed a certain document, a confirmed mutual understanding. Some might call it a settlement agreement. I don't think so, because in my understanding an agreement is an acknowledgment that you did something wrong.

Of course, you understand how important it is to be honest and frank with me. If another version appears, your credibility will suffer.

Of course.

So everything you said is 100% true?

I have a confirmed understanding with the government and it continues to operate. I will elaborate on this: it is a permanent process with the government.

Al-Waleed's reputation question

Already, Kingdom Holding is talking to lenders about raising $2 billion in debt financing — “firepower” for the next deal, the prince says.

These events have affected your reputation. No matter what you say in this interview, people will still be convinced that once you're at the Ritz-Carlton, you must be guilty of something. Understand it.

When you are detained, someone from the business or banking community will certainly state their doubts. Now my job is to interact, meet all of them, whether privately or collectively, and tell my story.

I understand that it will not be easy, because some banks and representatives of the business community will continue to doubt. However, I assure them that everything is in order, everything is back to normal, and we are functioning in the same mode as before.

It would certainly help if the government said: "Al-Waleed did nothing wrong, there was a misunderstanding, he did not buy his freedom and remains a Saudi citizen in good standing." But that didn't happen.

Context

When the princes were locked up at the Ritz

Camels punished for Botox and other deceptions of the Arab world

What is the relationship between Hariri's resignation and the arrests of Saudi princes?

The confirmation of my words is the fact that I am speaking to you now, and I speak truthfully and honestly, and the fact that the government will not say: "Al-Waleed is wrong."

So you feel the need to speak out in order to restore your good name because you have been slandered?

Firstly, I really need to restore my reputation, and secondly, to clarify a lot of false points. For example, that I was tortured and sent to prison. It's a lie. I stayed at the hotel all the time and was never tortured.

Inside the Ritz-Carlton

For three months, 381 Saudis remained locked up at the Ritz-Carlton, which has 492 rooms, 52 acres of land and gigantic conference rooms. Many were quickly released. Al-Walid's tenure was one of the longest. The prince says he was held in room 628, a 4,575-square-foot (425 sqm) royal suite.

What have you been doing all this time?

Sports, walking, meditation, watching the news, prayers.

Describe one typical day.

I went to bed at 6-7 o'clock in the morning, woke up around noon. We prayed five times a day.

Did you have access to television and newspapers?

Everything was accessible.

So, no one outside knew about what was happening inside, and you, being inside, knew about everything that was happening outside?

Exactly. That's why I managed to get information about the so-called torture.

So you weren't abused?

Not at all.

Are you sure that none of the detainees suffered from abuse, torture or beating?

Maybe someone tried to escape or do something crazy. Maybe they were pacified and controlled. Quite possible. But there was nothing that could be called systematic torture.

Were you allowed to speak to other detainees?

No. No one at the Ritz-Carlton could talk to each other. Even in my case. I didn't see anyone, I didn't talk to anyone.

You have been allowed to make several calls. To whom and under what conditions?

I called my son, daughter and granddaughters. And spoke to the heads of my companies CEO Kingdom Holding, head of my personal office and general secretary my fund.

Were the calls tracked?

Probably yes.

Dealing with the Crown Prince

For more than 70 years, the Saudi throne has passed from one brother to another, but Salman broke with the past by handing over control of several government portfolios to his son and making him crown prince last year. Prince Mohammed's plans include the Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 economic program, under which the world's largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, could go public. Movie theaters, banned since the early 1980s, have returned, and in some parts of Riyadh, women are allowed to go bareheaded. And in June, for the first time since 1990, they will be allowed to drive.

How does it feel to be held captive by your own cousin?

Not easy, I must admit. It's hard when you're being held against your will. But after my release, I had a very strange feeling. I gathered all the senior employees of my companies and associates and told them: "I swear to you that I am in complete calm and peace and do not feel resentment or other bad feelings."

And, of course, a day later we were again talking with the royal court, the crown prince and his people. The situation is very strange, but that's how it happened.

Is it because you just needed to move forward?

No. I'm a patriot. I believe in my country. What happened will not make me turn against my uncle, my cousin, my country and my people.

How would you describe your relationship with Prince Mohammed?

They got stronger. This strikes many, even my own people.

Have you forgiven him?

I completely forgot and forgave everything that happened. Everything is left behind.

How often do you communicate with him?

At least once every three days I text him, call him or talk in person.

Do you talk to him every three days?

We mostly correspond, we talk less often. But we talk every week.

Prince Mohammed has a grand plan to transform the Saudi economy and society. Do you still support him in this?

Yes. His vision absorbed many of my ideas, and he multiplied them. I put forward the idea of ​​creating a sovereign fund and talked about the transformation of Aramco into a public company. Women's rights, their competitiveness in society, their driving - I called for all this.

He lays the foundation new era in Saudi Arabia. Any person who opposes what Mohammed bin Salman is doing, I personally consider a traitor.

Navigating the new Saudi Arabia

The crown prince has also become the largest Saudi investor, pumping tens of billions of government dollars into Uber Technologies Inc. and funds managed by Blackstone Group and SoftBank Group.

Does the government want you to create and maintain relationships with heads of state and heads of international companies?

I was released without being burdened with any conditions, I maintained contacts with many heads of state in Europe and the Middle East. Everything is fine.

Can you travel?

Of course I can.

Do you know if the government is monitoring your whereabouts?

I don't care.

What about your bank accounts?

Everything is back to normal.

Are you looking for foreign investment, as is the State Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund. Isn't this competition?

Actually, in terms of participation in many projects, we keep in touch with the government. They have a big project in the Red Sea with resorts like the Maldives. There will also be Four Seasons hotels. We were also invited to take part in another Riyadh project, the construction of a huge entertainment center in Disney style.

We are involved in the field hotel business, funds mass media and in the entertainment industry. So there is no competition, we complement each other.

What about joint investments? Will PIF invest with Kingdom Holding or perhaps Rotana or Prince Al Waleed himself?

Yes, this will happen. Now we are discussing certain projects with PIF.

Domestic projects or international ventures?

Internal to begin with.

The crown prince visits Western countries, meets with Trump at the White House and tries to attract capital to Saudi Arabia. Considering what happened to you at the Ritz-Carlton, how satisfied are you that you represent a united front with the government, the very thing that brought you to that hotel?

I support Saudi Arabia, I support my government, I support King Salman and Prince Mohammed in every way. So it was before, during and after the arrest.

It will be difficult for people to understand.

They do not understand that you are talking to a person who is a member of the royal family. We are all in the same boat here. On one side. We are the ruling family of Saudi Arabia.

I understand that from the point of view of ordinary citizens it sounds strange. They will definitely say "Do you still support the king and crown prince after being their prisoner?”

You have to think about how willing CEOs will be to invest in Saudi Arabia after seeing this kind of dispute resolution.

Let them decide for themselves. On my own behalf, I can say the following: things are going on as usual, and we will continue to invest in Saudi Arabia.

Eric Shatzker- Canadian presenter and editor of Bloomberg Television, has 15 years of experience in covering events in the world of investment and economics.

The materials of InoSMI contain only assessments of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the editors of InoSMI.

Prince Khalid ibn al-Walid al-Saud is a typical hipster. He wears Converse sneakers and hoodies, uses Uber and does not eat animal products. He has a goal in life - to rid the world of animal farms. And he also has huge cash to achieve this goal.

ALEXEY ALEKSEEV

student child

The name of the Saudi prince Khalid ibn al-Walid al-Saud in Russia, few have heard. There is no article about him in the Russian-language Wikipedia, and the Russian-language Google search produces several articles from vegetarian sites and thousands of links to articles about the prince's father, a multi-billionaire investor.

Prince Khalid bin al-Walid al-Saud was born in 1978 in California. Not the most common birthplace for a member of the Saudi royal family, right? How did he get there?

This story can be started from the middle of the last century. Since John Russell, a professor at the obscure American Menlo College, decided to take a vacation in Saudi Arabia. He told the Saudis he knew that he worked at a small private business school that provided a very good education for a lot of money. The professor could hardly guess what would happen next.

Soon the first students from Saudi Arabia appeared in the college. After the oil boom of the 1970s began, their number began to grow rapidly. To date, more than 100 members of the Saudi royal family have graduated from Menlo College. Other families in the Saudi elite also began to send their sons to study in Menlo, and one family decided to give an American education even to their daughter! According to statistics, the percentage of students from Saudi Arabia among college students exceeds their share in any other educational institution USA.

In 1975, Prince Al-Waleed ibn Talal ibn Abdulaziz al-Saud, grandson of the founder and first king of Saudi Arabia, entered the college. Years later, this prince, who holds a BBA from Menlo College, would be known as the Saudi Warren Buffett.

The prince will swear at Forbes magazine because it underestimates the size of his fortune. The magazine's latest estimate puts it at $18.7 billion, making Prince Al-Waleed the 45th richest person on the planet. Bloomberg estimated his net worth at $17.8 billion in November.

But then, 43 years ago, it was just a moderately well-fed young man who came to California to learn how to make money. The following year, the student al-Walid married his cousin Dalal. Their firstborn was Prince Khalid.

From college to university

Having received a bachelor's degree, Prince al-Walid returned to his homeland with his wife and one-year-old son. He graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in sociology by correspondence. In his free time, he worked part-time. He mortgaged the house given to him by his father. He sold a necklace given by his father to his wife. Money wisely invested. He was engaged in real estate, construction, bought banks. Slowly went into international investors, became a billionaire.

His The only son and the heir Prince Khalid lived with his father in the palace. When Prince Khalid was four years old, he developed younger sister Rome. A little later, the parents divorced. Then my father remarried and divorced again.

In 1997, the family, consisting of a single father with two teenage children, celebrated their housewarming by moving to a new palace in the center of Riyadh. There were 317 rooms in the palace, almost every one had a TV set. Italian marble, oriental carpets, golden faucets in the bathrooms, five kitchens (for Lebanese, Arabic, European continental and Asian cuisines and a separate one for sweets). In the yard - a swimming pool, in the basement - a cinema. The single father also had a yacht bought from the American developer Donald Trump, several personal planes and hundreds of three cars, with one Rolls Royce considered to be his daughter's.

Even buying a personal yacht, Prince Al-Walid has shown himself to be a talented investor. He bought it at a discounted price from real estate developer D. Trump during a downturn in the real estate market. In the photo - Prince al-Walid with his son Khalid and daughter Reem

Photo: Balkis Press/ABACAPRESS/Kommersant

Of course, Princess Rome did not drive him herself. Not because she was 15 years old, but because the laws of the kingdom forbade women from driving.

In the year of the housewarming, Prince Khalid turned 19. And two things happened in his life. important events which largely determined the future of the prince. Following in his father's footsteps, he entered an American business school. True, not to Menlo College, popular with the Saudi elite, but to the University of New Haven. Then he worked in a bank, moved to his father's investment holding Kingdom Holding Company.

But even more important was the father's example in another area of ​​life. Despite five kitchens and a crowd of cooks capable of preparing a meal for 2,000 people in an hour, Prince al-Walid decided that he needed to lose weight and generally lead healthy lifestyle life.

If as a student he weighed 90 kg, then along with billions of dollars came additional kilograms. Al-Waleed started counting calories. Islam did not allow him to drink alcohol, his own beliefs did not allow him to smoke. The great investor became a vegetarian.

Animal farms - to the dustbin of history

“Prince Khalid is considered to be a Western, progressive person on many issues, including the role of women in Saudi society. He, like his father, has a business mindset, but he is also simple and sweet.” This characterization of Prince Khalid is contained in the files of the private American intelligence and analytical company Stratfor, published by WikiLeaks. The journalists who interviewed him write the same about the prince.

In Saudi Arabia, he wears traditional clothes, but in America he wears jeans, a hoodie, a baseball cap and black Converse sneakers (the upper, of course, is made of artificial leather). True, during foreign trips he lives in Four Seasons hotels, which can hardly be called budget. But he does this not at all out of a desire to spend extra money, but, on the contrary, out of economy: his father is a co-owner of this network.

The prince most clearly demonstrated his advanced Western views in 2005, when he married a girl not from a royal, but from a simple family - the daughter of the country's finance minister.

Khalid is not just the heir to his father's business empire. In 2013, he founded his own company, KBW Investments. He has business interests on all continents. But in addition to investments in traditional business areas (construction, mining, automotive, hospitality, media), Prince Khalid also invests in high technologies - mobile payments, smartphone applications, energy saving. He helped launch the popular website TechnoBuffalo, dedicated to consumer electronics and new technologies.

The prince is very concerned about environmental issues. He has abandoned investments in oil and gas, the industry most associated with Saudi Arabia. He has only one car - a Tesla electric car. Outside his native kingdom, he prefers Uber. Khalid believes that the world is facing an ecological catastrophe due to climate change, caused, in particular, by excessive consumption of meat.

In 2008, Khalid watched two American documentaries: Food, Inc. and Food. The price of the issue ”(Food Matters). The first talks about how inhumane the meat industry is and what harm it does to the environment. The second is about what kind of food benefits the body, and what causes harm. According to the prince, films literally opened his eyes. The prince had another reason to think about food. Khalid at that time weighed 105 kg. The level of cholesterol in his blood was greatly elevated. Thanks to veganism, he lost 82 kg in seven months and brought his cholesterol back to normal. Before and after photos are now posted on his Facebook.

Last summer, Prince Khalid stated in an interview: “My main goal is to send livestock farms to the dustbin of history. It must happen in my lifetime."

The prince calculates that he can achieve the goal within 10 years through strategic investments in new methods of conducting Agriculture, which will provide the population of the planet with a sufficient amount of vegetable proteins.

Shortly before this interview, the prince started a page on Facebook. It opens with the motto: "Stand up for your beliefs, even if you do it alone." However, he is not alone. Prince Khalid managed to convince his father to become not just a vegetarian, but a vegan.

As Prince Khalid writes on his Facebook, if the world sticks to the traditional diet, disaster is inevitable: “We must boycott fast food restaurants and take care of our health and the health of our children before this disaster occurs.”

Last February, the first vegan gourmet restaurant with a very simple name, Cafe Plant, opened in the Kingdom of Bahrain. It is also the first restaurant outside of North America by Chef Matthew Kenny, raw vegan guru.

Prince Khalid originally thought of paying a franchise to an American chef, but then he hit upon a better idea - to invest in the Kenny restaurant chain. The Cafe Plant restaurant has become part of this chain. It is well located opposite the most prestigious English-taught school in the country.

Thanks to Prince Khalid, the first vegan restaurant in Bahrain, part of the network of establishments of the legendary chef Matthew Kenny (pictured in the center)

Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for NYCWFF

During the year, many enthusiastic reviews about the restaurant appeared on travel websites. Everyone, even people who are far from vegan, unanimously admire the taste of the dishes, but not everyone is delighted with the prices.

Prince Khalid intends to bring the number of such restaurants in the region to 10 by 2020. He is aware that this will not change the situation much, but it will be a step in the right direction.

The prince financed the filming of the documentary "Eating Our Way To Extinction" ("If we eat like this, we will die out"). The film is scheduled to be released this year. Another documentary funded by the prince focuses on UFC mixed martial arts champion James Wilkes and other vegan athletes. Prince Khalid believes that documentaries can influence the viewer, make him change his views, as it once happened to him.

Last May, he attended the New York Summit of the Reducetarian Foundation, a foundation that advocates for a global reduction in meat consumption in order to protect human health, protect environment and humanization of animal husbandry.

Last September, Prince Khalid's company was among the investors who invested $17 million in San Francisco-based startup Memphis Meats. This company is working on the technology to create "clean meat" grown from animal cells in the laboratory. Among the investors who supported the startup are Bill Gates, Richard Branson and the Draper Fisher Jurvetson venture fund, which previously invested in Baidu, SpaceX, Tesla, Twitter. Interestingly, the foundation is based in the neighborhood of the city of Atherton in Silicon Valley, where Prince Khalid was born 40 years ago.

In the same month, the prince became a member of the board of directors of the Hampton Creek grocery company, which manufactures and sells vegetarian food products. The company is also developing "clean meat" and plans to bring it to market later this year.

One day, Prince Khalid went to the Life "n One vegan cafe in Dubai. The cafe has a slate board on which visitors can add their continuation of the sentence "Before I die, I want ..."

The prince wrote: "Do away with animal farms."

It is said that the owner of this "flying palace" based on the Airbus A380 for 500 million dollars, Saudi prince al-Waleed bin Talal, was very upset to learn that in the Forbes rating for 2013, he took only 26th place among the richest people on the planet. Well, it remains only to sympathize with the prince and wish him success.
In the meantime, let's take a look at its interior with one eye. personal aircraft(and not the only one, of course, you know, the status does not allow it), which has been built for him since 2007. This plane has on board a garage for two Rolls-Royce cars, a prayer room that can rotate (so that it always points towards Mecca), as well as a stable for horses and camels.
There is also a swimming pool and a sauna on board the liner (why?). And now attention! On top of everything else, the prince decided to literally gild his airbus, so that everyone would be protected for sure! Coating the body of the aircraft with gold cost the Arab prince $58 million...

By the way, Saudi Arabia is not very popular among tourists, but its neighbors - the United Arab Emirates, very much so! Here
www.optio-travel.ru/oaae.jdx we are looking for a suitable tour in the UAE and enjoy the beauty and luxury of Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

A few facts about the prince: Al-Waleed ibn Talal ibn Abdulaziz Al Saud was born on March 7, 1955, a member of the Saudi royal family, an entrepreneur and an international investor. He made his fortune on investment projects and buying shares.
Al-Waleed has a Bachelor of Science and a Master's degree. He was also awarded a PhD from International University Exeter. Was divorced twice. In 2006, he met his third wife, Princess Amire, and proposed to her. Has two children: Prince Khaled and Princess Reem.
Al-Waleed began his business career in 1979 after graduating from Menlo College. He took out a $300,000 loan and brokered business with foreign firms wishing to do business in Saudi Arabia.
Collaborated with Bill Gates, being one of the co-owners of Four Seasons Hotels, and in 2004 supported Microsoft's expansion in Saudi Arabia.