RIYADH: Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) and largest shareholder in Citigroup, recently congratulated Vikram Pandit, the CEO of Citigroup, on the company's latest quarterly results during a telephone conversation. The company's latest performance and its favorable impact on the market was better than expected as the results were a major step-up on the previous quarters, because there were improvements driven by lower write-downs, focusing on solid activities and divesting itself of non-core operations, in addition to talent enhanced by strong new hires. Earier this year, the prince was received by Pandit at the Citigroup headquarters in New York City and also met with Sir Win Bischoff, chairman of the board of Citigroup. Prince Alwaleed invested in Citigroup through KHC in 1991 with an ownership of 3.6 percent. In January 2008, Prince 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 size of Prince Alwaleed's investment in the convertible preferred securities is in line with maintaining his direct and indirect interests through KHC, below the 5 percent ownership threshold. According to Forbes magazine's 2007 list of the World's 2000 Largest Public Companies, Citigroup is the largest public company in the world.
