Stock markets everywhere are falling. In Hong Kong, then in New York City, brokers are selling desperately. Deep in the desert night of Saudi Arabia, a reclusive investor, attired in a plain white robe and the red-checked headdress of a Bedouin, is buying. Brother, is he buying.
Nobody would think the worse of him if Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz al Saud joined the selling stampede. The tumbling value of Citicorp alone has cost him, as the banking company's largest shareholder, $640 million by the time the clock strikes noon on Wall Street. But to Alwaleed the only question is: At which precise moment should he strike? He and his advisers have spent six months studying 40 companies. Now prices are becoming more of a bargain by the second. So many stocks, so little time. Alwaleed sits elbows up at a cockpit-style desk, working a battery of phones. He glances back and forth at a panel of nine TV screens giving the latest news by satellite. At 10:40 p.m. Riyadh time, with trading temporarily suspended at the New York Stock Exchange, he dials Michael Jensen, his starched-collar financial adviser at Citicorp's private banking office in Geneva, who in turn gets on another phone with Citi's brokers in New York City. "At that point," Jensen will later recall, "His Highness said, 'Buy!'" First the prince supplies the names of four finalist companies. Then he supplies the figure: $1.2 billion. Jensen sucks his breath back out of the phone and places the order. "Everybody on Wall Street is crying, but I was prepared for this," says Alwaleed, palpably confident and cool. Jokes his Saudi adviser Mustafa al Hejailan: "With the prince it is like playing Monopoly with real money."
That buy order on Monday, Oct. 20, was undoubtedly one of the largest ever placed by an individual investor. "I know the economic fundamentals are strong, and the market will go back up," he says. "Just like sheep, you have people going in the same direction [that is, panicking]. But I think the stock market is going to go up and up." So far, he's been right. He bought big, but he also bought big names. Alwaleed told TIME that he now owns about 5% of News Corp., the global media conglomerate run by Rupert Murdoch, making him the second largest individual holder, behind Murdoch. Alwaleed also bought some 5% of Web-browser maker Netscape Communications, and a chunk of chip and cell-phone maker Motorola. The fourth finalist, another well-known American company, according to the prince, is still being bought up.
Unlike his prior, mostly passive investments in Citi, Apple Computer and Disneyland Paris, this time Alwaleed is buying with an intent to take a more active hand with management. Murdoch might find that interesting. He also might find himself with a like-minded partner. Alwaleed is a global thinker, and in the media business, nobody is more global than Murdoch. The prince apparently hopes that entrenching himself in high-tech media-related outfits may help make him a king of communications in the Middle East--or, in due course, an emperor like Murdoch. Says Alwaleed: "I want to concentrate on communications, technology, entertainment and news. This is the future. News Corp. is the only truly global news and entertainment company. Netscape is strongly involved with the Internet. Motorola is very global in telephones and satellites. These companies are going to play a crucial role."