Expanding the Empire of Saudi Arabia, Arabian Peninsula
Having established a strong foundation for his growing financial empire on Saudi soil, in the late 1980s Al-Walid began to extend his investment horizon beyond the Arabian Peninsula. Following his mantra that “banks are the eyes of an economy,” in 1987 his financial team began intensively studying ailing money-center banks in the United States. By 1989, he had spent $250 million snapping up shares of Chase Manhattan, Citicorp, Manufacturers Hanover, and Chemical Bank.
