On 1 September 2026 Kingdom Holding Company became the owner of 70% of Al Hilal Club Company and the Public Investment Fund came down to 30%: the club announced it that same day, on its own site. The agreement had been signed by the two parties on 16 April. The statement gives the percentages and does not give the price: that absence is the place to start.
The deal at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| What | Transfer of 70% of Al Hilal Club Company |
| From | Public Investment Fund |
| To | Kingdom Holding Company |
| Stake left with the fund | 30% |
| Agreement signed | 16 April 2026 |
| Completion | 1 September 2026 |
| Price at completion | Not stated |
| Value at signing | Enterprise value of 1.4 billion riyals for the whole capital |
| Club chairman | Prince Nawaf bin Saad |
| Kingdom Holding chairman | Prince Alwaleed bin Talal |
The percentages the club states and the price it does not
The statement of 1 September is precise about one thing only: the stakes. Seventy to Kingdom Holding, thirty to the fund, once the procedures were completed. About money it says nothing. This is how the club writes it, in the English wording of the release: “Kingdom Holding Company has become the owner of 70% of the shares in Al-Hilal Club Company, while the Public Investment Fund retains a 30% stake, following the completion of all relevant procedures related to the deal.”
The document that does speak about value is another one, the joint statement of 16 April 2026 published on the acquiring company’s site. There one sentence has to be read word by word: the agreement to buy the 70% is based on an enterprise value of 1.4 billion riyals for the whole share capital of Al Hilal.
The instinctive calculation would be 70% of 1.4 billion, that is 980 million. It is the calculation not to make, for two reasons: enterprise value is not the value of the equity, because it includes the net debt position that neither of the two statements quantifies; and the figure refers to the whole capital, not to the stake transferred. Three official numbers remain: seventy, thirty and 1.4 billion referred to one hundred per cent.
Who paid for the termination, the day before the handover
On 31 August Al Hilal announced the mutual termination of the contract with Karim Benzema and, on the same day, the one with Ali Al Bulayhi. In a separate note, the board chaired by Prince Nawaf bin Saad thanked Prince Alwaleed bin Talal for funding the costs of Al Bulayhi’s termination: the statement names that from the headline onwards, and about Benzema it says nothing of the kind.
The detail not to flatten: the club thanks the prince in a personal capacity and does not name Kingdom Holding. The fact stands: the day before the handover, those costs were covered by the man who chairs the company that the following day would become the controlling shareholder.
The internal merry-go-round the summer has already shown
What changes when the controlling stake passes from the fund to another company? Part of the answer lies in how players move inside the league: the Saudi Pro League Transfer Centre publishes the 2026-27 summer window club by club.
The moves inside the league that go through Al Hilal number eleven on the club’s page alone: three are enough to show how the players circulate. Abdullah Radif is recorded as returning from his loan at Al Fayha and then sold to Al Ahli. Mohammed Al Qahtani comes back from his loan at Al Taawoun and moves to Al Qadsiah. Darwin Nunez goes on loan to Diriyah Club, where Enzo Millot also arrives on loan from Al Ahli.
A note on method, because one page is not enough. Ali Al Bulayhi appears three times: leaving Al Shabab for Al Hilal at the end of a loan, leaving Al Hilal as a free agent, joining Al Shabab from Al Hilal. It is not a source contradicting itself: it is a loan that ends, then the termination of 31 August, then the new registration, which the selling side records as a free agent and the signing side as an arrival from Al Hilal.
On 1 September the league then put Al Hilal and Al Ahli up against each other at Kingdom Arena, and the club reported a 3-0 win. On Al Ahli’s shareholder, though, the documents we opened say nothing, and the statements name the privatisation project without listing the clubs: the convenient premise, the two teams under the same shareholder, remains unverified.
Who polices multi-club ownership, and where it is written
The Saudi Pro League Handbook 2026-27, in the list of the federation’s responsibilities, at article 2.1.6 assigns to SAFF the monitoring of matters relating to multi-club ownership, according to the governing rules of the Club Control Body.
A few lines that say two things: a dedicated body exists and has a name, and the competence belongs to the federation, not to the league. What the Handbook does not publish, on that same page, are the rules of that body: which thresholds trigger an examination, and with what consequences, cannot be read there.
The budget that does not change owner
There is, on the other hand, a part of the money that the share transfer does not touch. Among its regulations the league publishes the budget guide of the elite player attraction programme, from the 2026-27 season to 2029-30. It is shared out on four criteria with stated weights: equal share 22%, sporting performance 22%, television audience 28%, commercial performance 28%. The three variable criteria use a scale by position, from 16.70% for the first to 0.80% for the eighteenth, which redone by hand adds up to exactly 100.00. The last three rows are not second-division sides: the guide ranks the promoted clubs in positions 16 to 18 according to their finish in the last second-division season, and the 0.80% goes to the last of the three. The equal share is worth one eighteenth each, promoted clubs included, 5.60% in the table: for eighteen that makes 100.80, the rounding of 1/18 and not a mistake.
The data has to be delivered by 15 March each year, 19 March for the first season only, and whoever delivers late has commercial performance calculated at zero. Access requires the league’s local licence to be valid, plus procedures respected and documents filed on time. Among the guiding principles the league writes that the programme also serves to increase clubs’ investment and revenue through privatisation.
What, about the other clubs, is not on the record
A piece like this has to say where it stopped. Among the documents we opened there is no market announcement to the Saudi stock exchange about the completion: the exchange’s site refuses our requests, and the Kingdom Holding announcements page loads its content from an external tool that returned nothing. The second official source remains the statement of 16 April.
On the other clubs we have not verified the ownership structure, for two different reasons. alnassr.sa answers with an access error, like the fund’s site. The official sites of Al Ittihad, ittihadclub.sa, and of Al Ahli, alahlifc.sa, open perfectly well, but they talk about the transfer market and about tickets: on who owns the shares they write nothing. A domain that opens is not an answer, and a similar-looking domain is not the club: alahli.com is a banking institution. That picture stays open.
The lesson in method
When a club’s ownership changes, the temptation is to measure the event in money. Here the money is largely missing, and what changes is something else: control of Al Hilal is no longer the fund’s, and yet the fund has not left and stays at 30%. Any negotiation involving the club has to be read knowing that there are two reference shareholders, and that with that 30% independent parties is not the right label.
The rest stays where it was. The central budget for the big signings is distributed on a scale published by the league, and the supervision of multi-club ownership sits with a federal body whose rules cannot be read on the regulations page. A change of shareholder moves a lot and does not move everything: telling the two apart is exactly the work.
Sources: official Al Hilal statements of 1 September 2026 on the completion and of 31 August on Benzema, on Al Bulayhi and on the funding of the costs of his termination; joint statement of the Public Investment Fund and Kingdom Holding of 16 April 2026 on kingdom.com.sa, for the signing, for the enterprise value referred to the whole capital and for the fund as major shareholder since July 2023; Saudi Pro League site for the 2026-27 summer window and for Al Hilal against Al Ahli; league Handbook 2026-27 for article 2.1.6; league budget guide of the elite player attraction programme, read in Arabic for the promoted clubs and for the licence; Wikimedia Commons and the entry on the 2021 Club World Cup for the opening photograph. Not on the record from an open official source: the price of the 70%, the fund’s percentage before 1 September, a market announcement to the Saudi stock exchange on the completion and the ownership structure of the other Saudi clubs: the sites of Al Ittihad and Al Ahli do not publish it, those of Al Nassr and of the fund are closed to our requests. The sums on the scale and on the equal share were redone by hand.
Frequently asked questions
What was completed on 1 September 2026?
The transfer of 70% of the shares in Al Hilal Club Company from the Public Investment Fund to Kingdom Holding Company. The club announced it on its own site the same day, specifying that the fund keeps 30% and that the share purchase agreement had been signed by the two parties on 16 April.
How much was paid for the 70%?
The completion statement does not say: it gives the percentages and no figure. The joint statement on the signing, dated 16 April 2026, states an enterprise value of 1.4 billion riyals for the whole share capital of the club. That is not the same thing as the price paid for the 70% stake, and neither of the two documents writes that price.
Since when had the Public Investment Fund been a shareholder in Al Hilal?
Since July 2023, according to the joint statement of 16 April 2026, within the sports club investment and privatisation project. That document calls it the major shareholder and not the majority shareholder, which would be a claim about going past fifty per cent: the percentage held before 1 September does not appear in any of the documents we managed to open.
What is on the record about the ownership of the other big Saudi clubs?
Nothing, from an open official source. None of the statements we read lists the clubs in the investment and privatisation project. Al Nassr's site answers with an access error and the fund's site refuses our requests too; the official sites of Al Ittihad, ittihadclub.sa, and Al Ahli, alahlifc.sa, are reachable instead, but their pages do not publish the ownership structure. The picture stays open.
Who polices multi-club ownership in Saudi football?
The Saudi Pro League Handbook for the 2026-27 season, at article 2.1.6, lists among the federation's responsibilities the monitoring of matters relating to multi-club ownership, according to the governing rules of the federal Club Control Body. The supervision therefore exists and is named, and it belongs to the federation, not to the league.
Does the change of ownership move the money the stars are bought with?
Not the money of the central programme. The league publishes the budget distribution guide of the elite player attraction programme for the seasons from 2026-27 to 2029-30, with four criteria and fixed weights: equal share 22%, sporting performance 22%, television audience 28%, commercial performance 28%. That budget is distributed on those criteria whoever the individual club's shareholder is.
