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Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Co. has signed a share purchase agreement to acquire a stake in Breakthrough Energy Ventures LLC (BEV) from its chairman and major shareholder, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal AlSaud, for 255 million riyals ($68 million).
The deal involves Kingdom Holding purchasing Prince Alwaleed’s stake in BEV at a 30% discount to its estimated fair value. Based on BEV’s most recent audited financial statements, the stake is valued at $98 million. Historical audited valuations for the same stake were $96.6 million in 2022 and $ 91.4 million in 2023.
In a bourse statement, Kingdom Holding said the acquisition will be financed through its internal resources.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures, founded by Bill Gates in 2016, invests in early stage companies to accelerate clean energy innovation. Alwaleed supported the venture with an investment of $50 million, joining Gates and members of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition (BEC) in their commitment to invest more than $1 billion in energy technologies.
Kingdom Holding confirmed that the transaction constitutes a related party deal, as Prince Alwaleed serves as the company’s board chairman and is also its largest shareholder.
In 2022, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign Public Investment Fund acquired a 16.8% stake in Kingdom from the prince.
(Writing by Brinda Darasha; editing by Daniel Luiz)
