Saudi-based Kingdom Holding Co (KHC) on Tuesday said first quarter net profit fell sharply year-on-year on lower dividend income, while an external auditor expressed “reservations” over its investments. The firm, in which Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal holds a 95 percent stake, made SR50.2 million ($13.4 million) in the three months to March 31, down 83.4 percent from SR303.8 million a year earlier, it said in a statement. The profit marks a large swing from the $8.26 billion net loss it posted in the fourth quarter, due to a decline in the value of its assets. In an Arabic-language earnings announcement on the Saudi bourse website on Tuesday, the company said an external auditor had expressed reservations about its stock investments categorized as available for sale. The statement said Kingdom, which holds a stake in Citigroup, believed the provisions were adequately assessed based on expert projections of the future price performance of its holdings. “The firm believes that the financial data and analyses concerning the assumptions and projections for the future price performance of these investments, which were compiled by international experts, were sufficient to assess the size of provisions that needed to be made,” it said. In an English statement emailed to Reuters on Tuesday, Alwaleed said Kingdom's earnings were stabilizing but made no mention of the provisions. “I feel confident that KHC's financial results have stabilized during this quarter and, with its strong balance sheet, the company is in a favorable position to identify good investment opportunities and we expect a continuation of this for this year,” Alwaleed said.
