RIYADH - Saudi Arabian investment firm Kingdom Holding proposed a cash dividend of 0.50 riyals per share for 2017, the company said on Thursday.

Chairman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who holds a 95 percent stake, waived his share of proposed dividends worth 299.2 million riyals quarterly ($79.8 million), it added in a bourse filing.

Alwaleed will still receive 562.7 million riyals in dividend for the year, a company official told Reuters.

"This is consistent with what he has received over the past seven years when the company started giving dividends. What he is giving up is 299.2 million riyals per quarter," the official added.

Prince Alwaleed, the kingdom's most recognised business figure, was freed on Jan. 27 after being held at Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton hotel for three months on the orders of his cousin Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

He said in a television interview last week that he had reached an agreement with the government for his release, but declined to disclose the details. He added that he was looking for investments up to $3 billion.

Alwaleed, a nephew of Saudi King Salman, is closely watched in international markets because of investments in companies such as Citigroup Inc and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Kingdom Holding announced earlier on Thursday a net profit of 663.6 million riyals versus a loss of 350 million riyals a year ago on an increase in income from investments.

 

(Reporting by Marwa Rashad and Tom Arnold in Dubai; Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Adrian Croft) ((marwa.rashad@thomsonreuters.com; +966114632603 ; Reuters Messaging: marwa.rashad.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))