Kingdom Holding, one of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent investors, poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Russian energy companies shortly before and after Ukraine’s invasion this year, the group said in a filing on Sunday.
The kingdom, majority-owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, made the investments despite Western leaders trying to increase pressure on Moscow and threatening sanctions against Russia, which they began imposing in late February.
Investments of about $500 million included $364 million in Gazprom in February, with the rest going to Rosneft and Lukoil this month and in March. President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Prince Alwaleed, a Saudi billionaire, was arrested at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh along with other tycoons and royals in 2017, in what authorities said was an anti-corruption effort.
Critics said it was a power play by rising crown prince Mohammed bin Salman to cement his position against an influential old guard. The state said it recovered $100 billion in ill-conceived funds.
Prince Alwaleed, whose grandfather founded Saudi Arabia, was released after reaching an agreement with the government, although he never disclosed the details. Other tycoons have been released after transferring funds or relinquishing partial control of their companies to the government.
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The government’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, said it bought a 16.8 percent stake in Kingdom Holding in May, months after the investments. However, given the Western pressure on Moscow, it would be unlikely that a major Saudi company would make any major investments in Russia without the government’s blessing.
Other investments announced on Sunday include a $220 million investment in Phoenix Group, a UK pension and savings company, and $221 million in investment manager M&G. It also made investments in Uber, Lyft, Alibaba, and BlackRock TCP Capital. According to Kingdom Holding, these were part of a three-year investment strategy totaling $3.4 billion. The company has stakes in the Four Seasons hotel chain and also has stakes in Twitter.
Saudi Arabia has maintained close ties with Russia, with both countries collaborating on oil production in Opec+. His ties with Washington have been strained since President Joe Biden took office after he vowed during his campaign to turn Saudi Arabia into a pariah over the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents. The CIA said Prince Mohammed was responsible for the operation to “capture or kill” Khashoggi, which the prince has denied.
Since then, Biden has had to go back on his promise and visited the country to meet with Prince Mohammed in July as he pushed for more oil production to offset prices and inflation.