RIYADH — Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) and its Chairman Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, are among the largest investors in Citigroup that was awarded as the “Bank of the Year 2015”. The 2015 Euromoney awards for excellence report stated that Citi is the last global wholesale bank offering all products to its clients everywhere. It operates in 100 countries and boasts a payment system handling $3 trillion of transactions a day, which no other bank is ever likely to emulate. In May 2015, Alwaleed met Mike Corbat CEO of Citigroup at the Fairmont Hotel in Seattle, Washington. In March 2015, Alwaleed congratulated Corbat for passing the Federal Reserve's stress tests with highest and cleanest results among top Wall Street banks. Alwaleed also thanked Corbat for increasing dividend payment from 4 cents to 20 cents per annum which is equal to 400% increase and initiative a buyback program of as much as $7.8 billion dollars of stocks representing %5 of the group's market-cap. Alwaleed is a prominent investor in Citigroup through KHC which operates in over 160 countries in the world since 1991 and is the largest single shareholder in the company. In 2008, Alwaleed participated in a $12.5 billion private offering of convertible preferred securities of Citigroup. The new direct investment was made alongside an exclusive group of leading international investors. The Prince converted the preferred shares in 2009 into common shares (voting shares). — SG
