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News Corp buys stake in Saudi’s Rotana entertainment
RIYADH - Global media giant News Corp has bought a 9.09-percent stake in Rotana Group, which is controlled by Saudi tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the companies said Tuesday.
News Corporation agreed to invest 70 million dollars in newly issued Rotana shares, and has the option to increase its stake to 18.18 percent within the next 18 months, they said.
Alwaleed said the deal would bring News Corp’s expertise in television and movie production as well as assistance on technology and new media to Rotana.
“This transaction is way beyond finance. Rotana is fully financed and is in very good shape,” he told reporters in reply to a suggestion that the company needed the cash infusion.
The prince added that privately-held Rotana is now searching for a financial adviser to help take the company public, but that the timing and market has not been determined.
Rotana operates a group of free-to-air satellite television channels, owns the largest Arabic film library, and runs its own retail movie and music sales stores.
It is one of the region’s two largest media groups, the other being the Dubai-based, Saudi-controlled MBC group.
The move firms up already existing links between News Corp, owned by US-based media magnate Rupert Murdoch, and Alwaleed, the 54-year-old nephew of King Abdullah whose fortune was estimated by Forbes magazine at 13.3 billion dollars.
Alwaleed’s Kingdom holding company is owner of about 7.0 percent of News Corp’s class B common stock.
The prince said he hoped the closer link with News Corp could help moderate the widely-perceived anti-Arab bias of some of its arms, like Fox News in the United States.
“It’s not only Fox that in general is against the Arab world. It’s an American syndrome,” he said.
“We will always do our best to lower that tone.”
One of the Rotana’s TV channels, Khalijia, recently began airing an Arabic-dubbed version of the controversial Turkish series “Valley of the Wolves,” which caused a recent diplomatic row between Turkey and Israel. The Jewish state has labelled the show anti-Semitic.
Advertisements for the show aired on Khalijia and other Rotana channels remind viewers that the programme was behind the Turkish-Israeli spat.
Through the tightly-controlled Kingdom, Alwaleed also holds major stakes in Citigroup, Apple, luxury retailer Saks, Proctor & Gamble, PepsiCo, luxury hotels, and a host of major Saudi companies.
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