Thursday, Dec 29, 2011

(This story was originally published Wednesday.)

CAIRO (Zawya Dow Jones)--Bahrain said Wednesday that it will host the entertainment company and a planned Arabic news channel owned by Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

The firm and the news channel will be based in Manama's Media City, a move that will help attract other reputable media organisations to Bahrain, a statement from Bahrain's Information Affairs Authority said.

Alarab TV, the satellite channel by Alwaleed bin Talal, who heads Kingdom Holding Co. (4280.SA), would be launched in December next year, it said.

Kingdom Holding is expected to release a separate statement later Wednesday.

Earlier this year the prince said he has inked an agreement with news service Bloomberg LP to launch Alarab. Bloomberg will support the creation of five hours of financial and economic news programming throughout the day on the channel, called Alarab.

Alwaleed has said Alarab will "focus editorially on the important shifts taking place across the Arab world, with an emphasis on freedom of speech and freedom of press."

Prince Alwaleed, who owns 95% of Kingdom Holding, has focused his investments on banks, hotels and media companies, building sizable stakes in firms such as Citigroup Inc. (C), News Corp. (NWS), Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Time Warner Inc. (TWX).

Over the past couple of years, the prince, who has been the Middle East's wealthiest businessman for 20 years, has again started seeking investors and acquisitions around the world after keeping a low profile in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

News Corp. owns a 14.53% stake in Alwaleed's media company, Rotana, while the prince owns about 7% stake in News Corp., which owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of this newswire and The Wall Street Journal.

Rotana, which hosts Fox channels in Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's largest economy, owns rights to more than 2,000 Arabic movies and the world's largest Arabic language music library, according to Zawya.com data.

Kingdom Holding shares are trading +2.3% at SAR9 ($2.4) in a overall negative market Wednesday.

-By Summer Said, Dow Jones Newswires; +966-546-842373; summer.said@dowjones.com

Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Co.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

29-12-11 0339GMT