The hotel operator announced on Wednesday that Bill Gates’s Cascade Investment LLC has purchased roughly half of Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s stake in Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts for $2.21 billion.
Cascade will buy half of the billionaire prince’s stake in Four Seasons, bringing its total ownership to 71.3 percent and valuing the hotel brand at $10 billion.
The remaining portion will be owned by Prince Alwaleed through his investment vehicle Kingdom Holding Co, according to Four Seasons.
While the prince holds shares in a number of companies, including Citigroup Inc and Lyft Inc, his investment firm has been reducing its hotel holdings for the past decade.
Prince Alwaleed was released in early 2018 after being held with scores of royals, top officials, and businessmen at Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel as part of Saudi Arabia’s anti-corruption drive.
Later that year, the Prince declared his imprisonment had been “forgiven and forgotten” in an interview with Fox News Channel.
In a release, Kingdom Holding stated that the cash proceeds from the disposal would be used to fund future investments as well as pay off a portion of outstanding debt.
Beyond the press statement, Cascade declined to comment. Four Seasons was the firm’s first investment in 1997.
A group led by Cascade, Prince Alwaleed, and the hotel chain’s founder Isadore Sharp took private the hotel operator, which maintains 121 hotels and has over 50 projects in the queue, a decade later.
As part of the deal, Sharp will preserve his 5% interest.
