Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), the investment firm of Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, has announced the SR700 million ($186.6 million) re-financing of Kingdom Centre. KHC holds a 36 per cent stake in the company.

The re-financing deal, which will be done through Samba Financial Group, is for expansion and investment purposes, said a KHC statement.

The Kingdom Centre, chaired by Talal Ibrahim Al Maiman, executive director for Development & Domestic Investments and KHC board member, is an iconic building and one of Saudi Arabia's most identifiable landmarks.

The Shariah compliant agreement was signed on Saturday by Talal AlMaiman and Zaki Al Mousa, board member of Samba Financial Group, in the presence of Prince Alwaleed and Eisa Al-Eisa, chairman of Samba Financial Group.

Shadi Sanbar, CFO, Ali Tabbal, deputy CFO, from KHC and Nada Al Ateegi, general manager of Kingdom Centre,  Mukhtar Othman, finance manager from Kingdom Centre besides Naif Al Baz from Samba attended the signing ceremony.

On the deal, Prince Alwaleed said, “The re-financing of Kingdom Centre comes in light of KHC’s objective to continue to monetize and extract value out of the company’s local investments portfolio”.

The Kingdom Centre, which occupies 94,230 sq m s of land comprises the Al Mamlaka shopping mall, considered to be one of Riyadh’s most prestigious shopping malls, and a 300 metre office tower which was, when built, the tallest building in the Middle East. The Kingdom Centre was completed in 2002.

In addition, Kingdom Centre includes the mall containing 161 stores and total leasable area of 38,543 sq m. Its anchor tenants are Debenhams, with 8,364 sq m and SAKS Fifth Avenue, with 5,273 sq m.

The mall is targeted toward younger and more affluent shoppers and contains stores representing a number of international luxury brands. The third floor of the mall is for women only.

Management estimates that approximately 230,000 persons visit the mall each week, the statement added.-TradeArabia News Service