Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, has taken control of the Four Seasons hotel chain after his investment firm agreed to acquire a stake from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding Company.
Gates’s Cascade Investment LLC has agreed to pay $2.2 billion U.S. in cash to boost its stake in Four Seasons Holdings to 71.25% from 47.5% previously, according to a news release issued by the parties involved in the transaction.
Gates and Alwaleed have known each other for decades. In 2017, Gates described the prince as an "important partner" in his charitable work.
Four Seasons shareholders took the company private in 2007, when it managed 74 hotels, with Gates and Alwaleed leading the deal. The new owners expanded the company’s footprint to more markets in a bid to capitalize on what was then a booming market for luxury travel.
The chain now manages 121 hotels and resorts, and 46 residential properties, and has more than 50 projects under development. Its landmark Kingdom Tower in Riyadh is among the two dozen hotels it owns across the Middle East and Africa.
Four Seasons has also expanded efforts to attach its brand to luxury homes, as real estate developers realized that affluent buyers would pay more to live in a condominium or residential community associated with the hotel brand.
Kingdom Holding will retain 23.75% of the hotel chain and plans to use proceeds from the deal for investments and to repay debt. Four Seasons Chairman Isadore Sharp, who founded the company in 1960, will keep his 5% stake in the chain.
The deal is expected to be completed in January 2022.
