Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al Saud, the Saudi billionaire, last week discussed the future of Rotana Media Services in a meeting with the News Corp chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch. It was the strongest signal yet that the international media giant's plans to buy a stake in the Saudi company are nearing fruition.
The talks, which took place in New York last Thursday, "touched upon a future potential alliance with News Corp", according to a statement released yesterday by the Prince's office. Rotana and the Lebanese TV channel LBC SAT, which is 90 per cent owned by Prince Alwaleed, were discussed. Nezar Nagro, the president of Rotana Media Services, said last month a deal that would see News Corp buy 10 per cent of the existing shares in the company could be completed this month.
Reports of Mr Murdoch's desire for a piece of Rotana began to surface last September. News Corp has repeatedly declined to give any details of the talks. Mr Nagro could not be reached for comment. The deal would significantly strengthen the ties between two of the world's leading media moguls. Prince Alwaleed, who topped Arabian Business's list of the richest Saudis with a fortune of US$16.3 billion (Dh59.86bn) despite suffering losses last year due to the economic downturn, already owns a 5.7 per cent stake in News Corp through his investment vehicle, Kingdom Holding.
Over the past two decades, Kingdom Holding has focused its investments on banks, hotels and media companies, building significant stakes in firms such as Citigroup, Apple and Time Warner. Citigroup is advising on the News Corp-Rotana deal, according to News Corp's Fox Business channel. The prince has helped build Rotana into one of the largest media conglomerates in the Arab world, with holdings in print, television, radio, film, digital and most notably music, where it holds the largest single catalogue of Arabic-language music in the world.
News Corp is one of the world's largest media conglomerates, owning many of the world's biggest brands such as BSkyB, The Times, New York Post, the publishers Harper Collins, the television network National Geographic Channels, Fox film and television concerns and the online social networking site MySpace. According to Forbes, Mr Murdoch is the 132nd-richest person in the world, with a net worth of more than $4bn.
It was through Fox International Channels that News Corp deepened its connection to Rotana. The company launched two channels, Fox Movies and Fox Series, on Rotana's television platform in 2008. * with Dow Jones @Email:khagey@thenational.ae
