KEY POINTS:
Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is in talks with investors to build an US$8 billion ($12 billion) Disneyland theme park in Bahrain, at the heart of the world's biggest oil-exporting region, a newspaper reported today.
The project would be based on the Walt Disney Co.'s existing theme parks and may be called "Disney Bahrain", Bahrain's al-Waqt newspaper said, citing an unnamed source.
The report did not make clear whether the US company was directly involved in the talks to build the first Disney theme park in the Gulf, where incomes have surged after a tripling of oil prices in the five years to last July.
Alwaleed, the world's eighth-richest man, is talking to investors including Kuwait Finance House, the Gulf's second-largest Islamic bank by market value, and Bahraini institutions, the paper said.
Alwaleed indirectly owns 10 per cent of Disneyland Paris operator Euro Disney, and his Rotana Audio Visual Co. signed a deal in November to distribute Walt Disney products across the Middle East and North Africa.
A spokeswoman for the prince could not be reached for comment, but a Riyadh-based official from Kingdom Holding, the conglomerate that groups Alwaleed's businesses, said: "There is an investment diversification programme being implemented."
The official, who asked not to be named, declined to elaborate.
A spokesman for Kuwait Finance House in Bahrain declined to either confirm or deny the report. Both Bahrain's Economic Development Board and state-owned Mumtalakat Holding Company said they had not heard of the deal.
"The founding committee has undertaken a study ... and has found the region is in great need of a project for family entertainment," al-Waqt said, citing its source.
The park would cover 16 million square metres (19.1 million square yards) with work expected to start in May and take six years to complete, the al-Waqt report said.
Mansoor Al-Jamri, an analyst and editor of Bahrain's Alwasat newspaper, said there had been prior speculation about such a deal.
"Bahrain has been trying to attract mega-investors for the last few years and has been successful ... Investors want a clear process and support of the leadership, and they have that here," he said, referring to several large projects.
Disney has 11 theme parks worldwide and has said it wants to build one in Shanghai to tap growing wealth created by China's economic boom.
The economies of the six Gulf Arab states are surging as governments spend windfall oil revenues. Per capita income in Dubai, commercial hub of the United Arab Emirates, is projected to hit US$44,000 a year in 2015 compared with US$31,000 in 2005, according to a government report.
Dubai, home to man-made islands shaped like palm fronds and an indoor ski slope, has become the second-largest Arab tourist destination after Egypt, drawing 6 million visitors a year.
- REUTERS
