Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the richest man in the Arab world, announced that the he severed ties with the team dealing with the billionaires list published by Forbes magazine, accusing them of using an incorrect assessment of assets, and being biased against investors in the Middle East.
Forbes assessed Prince Alwaleed wealth at $20 billion, up $2 billion from last year, ranking him 26th in the top of richest people in the world, published on Monday. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owns a 95% stake in the Saudi Arabian group Kingdom Holding Company, with diversified businesses, from luxury hotels to a significant stake in Twitter.
The company has not said what would be its own evaluation of Prince Alwaleed’s wealth. A Forbes spokesman, quoted by the Financial Times, said that the Saudi investor evaluates his fortune at $29.6 billion.
Prince Alwaleed would be placed in the top of 10 richest people in the world, before Bernard Arnault, founder of Luis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) and the most influential French businessman with a fortune estimated at $29 billion.
Prince Alwaleed sent a press release in response to a series of questions submitted by Forbes to verify certain information. Forbes has been analyzing the financial situation of the prince for several years and will present the results of the investigation in an article that will be published online, announced the American newspaper controlled by Steve Forbes.
Kingdom Holding Company said it would continue to work with Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a top of billionaires released last year by the group which competes with Bloomberg Forbes list. The Bloomberg top is updated daily, depending on the evolution of financial markets.
According to Bloomberg, Prince Alwaleed’s wealth was estimated at $28 billion Monday evening, 16th in the world. Kingdom Holding believes that Bloomberg’s estimates are more accurate and take into account the figures provided by the company.
Forbes added that Saudi Group refused to accept assessments from the Riyadh stock market, where Kingdom Holding is listed. Instead, Forbes guides its estimates by index development of other emerging markets such as Mexico, the company said, apparently referring to the evaluation of Carlos Slim’s wealth, considered by both billionaires lists the richest man in the world.
Kingdom Holding has also denounced the “arbitrary” lowering of the value of holdings in unlisted companies, such as those at Twitter and Chinese group 360Buy.
CFO of Kingdom Holding said the group has been in touch with Forbes in previous years on the methodology used to calculate the wealth, but their comments had no result.
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