Saudi Arabia's billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said Tuesday he purchased a $500 million stake in General Motors Co., equal to roughly 1% of the company, in the latest disclosure of foreign investments in the auto maker.
Prince Alwaleed, long the Middle East's wealthiest businessman, is among foreign investors that bought a chunk of GM through the company's initial public offering last week, reported The Wall Street Journal.
About 10% of the shares sold in the company's IPO went to investors outside North America, GM said.
In a statement, Prince Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding Co. said the decision to invest was based on "the global strength of the General Motors brand, the relatively attractive offering price, and the company's growth prospects in Brazil and China."
GM declined to comment on the prince's stake.
China's largest auto maker, SAIC Motor Corp., bought $500 million of shares in the IPO. SAIC and GM have had a partnership in China since the 1990s, where GM now sells more vehicles than in the U.S.
Involvement by foreign investors and sovereign-wealth funds is typical for a U.S. IPO, but the issue has been closely watched at GM because of the car maker's unusual standing as a government-controlled company. Before the stock offering the U.S. owned 61% of GM.
The Treasury confirmed Tuesday that it received $11.7 billion in net proceeds from selling 358.5 million of its GM common shares in the IPO.
GM courted non-U.S. investors as part of the IPO. Chief Executive Daniel Akerson visited the Middle East to pitch the company to investors there while other GM executives went to Asia and Europe.
GM initially had more interest from foreign investors but some of them opted not to participate in the IPO after the company increased the share price to $33 from the initial range of $26 to $29.
The U.S. Treasury, which oversaw the IPO, fretted over how to handle interest from foreign investors, fearing political fallout because the company was rescued with $49.5 billion in U.S. government funds.
Prince Alwaleed has experience with companies part-owned by the U.S. government. He is currently the largest single shareholder in bailed-out bank Citigroup Inc.
He acquired a stake in Citi around 1990 and held retained it as the shares soared over the years and then fell back—at one point to below his break-even level—to recently trading just above the price at which he purchased the shares two decades earlier.
Earlier this year, News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal, reached an agreement to buy a 9.1% stake in Prince Alwaleed's Rotana Media Group for $70 million.
Prince Alwaleed kept a low profile after his stocks plunged in the wake of the financial crisis and wiped out half of his conglomerate's equity. But over the past few months, as the investments have recovered, the prince has traveled globally seeking investors and acquisitions.
