June 18 (Bloomberg) -- Kingdom Holding Co., the Saudi Arabian investment company owned by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, plans to sell a 3.15 billion-riyal ($840 million) stake in an initial public offering.

Kingdom, valued at 63 billion riyals, will sell 315 million shares, equal to 5 percent of the Riyadh-based company, the Saudi Capital Market Authority said in a statement today on the national stock exchange Web site. The regulator hasn't given a date for the IPO of Kingdom, whose holdings include Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank.

Alwaleed, ranked by Forbes magazine as the world's 13th richest person, is putting part of his company up for sale at the same time as fellow billionaire investors Stephen Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson prepare for an IPO of New York-based buyout firm Blackstone Group LP. Like Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett, the second-wealthiest man after Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates, Alwaleed has built his $20 billion fortune by investing in undervalued brand-name companies.

``Kingdom is well known and its public offering should do well,'' said Faisal Hasan, head of research at Global Investment House, in an interview from Kuwait City.

Alwaleed's Kingdom joins companies including Arab Shield Co. for Cooperative Insurance, United International Transportation Co. and Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co. that are seeking to tap the Arab world's biggest economy for funds. The country's Tadawul All Share Index has declined 13 percent this year.

Three new listings are scheduled for this month, including Saudi Cooperative IAIC Insurance Co., whose shares jumped six- fold today in their first day of trading.

Kingdom's Assets

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Commerce & Trade approved Kingdom's request on June 5 to become a limited liability company. Officials from Kingdom weren't immediately available to comment.

Kingdom had assets of $24.7 billion at the end of 2006, according to the company. Alwaleed holds about 4 percent of Citigroup, 22.2 percent of Four Seasons Hotels Inc. and 10 percent of Euro Disney SCA, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Alwaleed, a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, began investing after graduating from California's Menlo College in 1979. A year later, he received a $300,000 loan from Saudi American Bank, which was run by Citicorp, according to his authorized biography ``Alwaleed: Businessman, Billionaire, Prince,'' written by Al Jazeera International host Riz Khan.

Outperforming Market

In 1991, he invested $590 million in Citigroup predecessor Citicorp, which needed cash as it struggled with Latin American loan losses and a collapse in U.S. real-estate prices. Alwaleed, who at the time already owned $207 million of the stock, now holds more than $10 billion of Citigroup shares.

Kingdom said its average return on investments over the past 16 years is 20 percent, outperforming the Morgan Stanley Capital International and Standard & Poor's global indexes. Alwaleed said in February 2006 that he planned to sell at least 30 percent of the company to benefit from ``better access'' to debt and equity markets.

To contact the reporters on this story: Glen Carey in Dubai at gcarey8@bloomberg.netArif Sharif in Dubai at asharif2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 18, 2007 12:53 EDT