Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed’s private equity and venture capital company KBW Investments may go public as soon as 2022, its chairman said.
"It's an option for the next three to five years," Prince Khaled said in an interview with The National. "As soon as we start diversifying a little more our portfolio from construction, architecture and engineering and obviously the real estate, we can package them into one attractive deal and then go public."
The Dubai-based company, founded in 2013, has a diversified portfolio worth about Dh3.5 billion with investments in the finance, media, property, construction, engineering, manufacturing, automation and technology.
“My personal preference would be to start a project in Saudi Arabia and then go to [the] Tadawul [exchange] as opposed to having no project in Saudi and going to the market,” Prince Khaled said when asked where he would look to list his company.
Sharjah-based real estate developer Arada, a joint venture between KBW Investments and Basma Group is eyeing joint venture partners in the kingdom, the largest economy in the Arab world and most populous country in the Arabian Gulf. Saudi Arabia is facing housing shortages and, like it’s GCC peers, has witnessed a softening property market over the last few years.
“At the end of the day, I am Saudi, I believe in Saudi and I believe in the real estate market in Saudi so we have to launch something before we can talk about taking KBW public,” Prince Khaled said. “Right now I’m enjoying having a private company, controlling the company and really working on our ambitions.”
KBW Investments invests in businesses that have high potential, that may or may not be profitable but have capacity to scale and generate additional growth opportunities.
