Saudi prince vows not to sell shares in Twitter

The prince, a nephew of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah and owner of international investment firm Kingdom Holding, invested $300m in the social media giant in late 2011.

“Clearly, the speed they’re moving with shows that they would like to IPO sooner than later. I believe it will happen either this year or early next year,” Mr Alwaleed said.

“Twitter is a very strategic investment for us. We believe it is just beginning to touch the surface. We have invested $300m in the company. We will be selling zero, nothing, at the IPO.”

He did not say whether he might buy new shares in the offer.

Mr Alwaleed is a closely watched figure in international markets because of successful investments through Kingdom Holding in companies such as Citigroup and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Twitter has filed for an initial public offer of shares with US regulators, taking a first step toward what would be Silicon Valley’s most anticipated debut since Facebook’s listing last year.

“With the 300m customers they have and half a billion tweets a day, the growth potential is tremendous,” Mr Alwaleed said.

The market expects the company’s value once listed to be more than $10bn. Mr Alwaleed sees potential for a much higher valuation.