(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
Riyadh:Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's Kingdom Holding Company announced Sunday the sale of its almost 30-percent share in a press group that publishes pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.
Kingdom Holding said in a statement that it was selling its 29.9% share in the Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG) for 837.3 million riyals ($223 million dollars).
SRMG publishes several leading newspapers and magazines including the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat and the economic daily Al-Eqtisadieh.
The statement did not specify who had bought the shares in SRMG where one of King Salman's sons Prince Ahmed holds 6.8% of the capital.
In February Prince Alwaleed said he had reduced his stake in Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation from 6.6% to about 1%.
The Saudi prince holds 95% of Kingdom Holding a company which is listed on the Saudi stock market.
He also owns Alarab a pan-Arab news channel which went off the air a day after its launch in Bahrain last February following an interview it broadcast with a Shiite opposition leader.
AFP