Kingdom Holding, the investment vehicle of Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, reported a SR402.6m ($107.4m) profit for 2009, marking a return to profitability after huge losses in 2008.

In the last quarter of 2009 the company made a profit of SR156m, compared to a loss of SR31bn in the fourth quarter of 2008 which left the company with a full-year loss of SR29.9bn that year. The losses were attributed to the falling value of the company’s investment portfolio.

On 5 January, Kingdom Holding announced it had received 180 million shares in the US’ Citigroup, worth SR2.24bn, as a gift from Prince Alwaleed. Following this, it said it was reducing its capital from SR63bn to SR37bn to help settle the SR30bn of provisions that the firm had previously made to cover the fall in the value of its investments.

Prince Alwaleed said at the time that the share transfer would make Kingdom Holding profitable again and enhance borrowing capacity.